Dutch biofuels startup Bioecon and Khosla Ventures have launched a joint venture called Kior, which will commercialize Bioecon’s process for converting agricultural waste directly into “biocrude,” a mixture of small hydrocarbon molecules that can be processed into fuels such as gasoline or diesel in existing oil refineries.
The process, Kior claims, boasts numerous advantages over other methods of producing biofuels: it could prove relatively cheap, relies on a nontoxic catalyst, taps into the present fuel-refining and transportation infrastructure, and produces clean-burning fuels that can be used in existing engines.
