UTEK Corp. acquires Xylose Technologies

A company whose fuel technology was developed at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been acquired by Xethanol Corp. of New York.

The company, Xylose Technologies, Inc. (XTI), was a wholly owned subsidiary of UTEK Corp., with U.S. headquarters in Plant City, Fla.

Xethanol Corp. is a biotechnology-driven ethanol production company.

The acquisition was handled through a stock-for-stock exchange.

XTI holds a license for a patented process to convert xylose into ethanol and xylitol. The technology was developed by researchers at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory and UW-Madison.

"This method potentially reduces the amount of labor involved in isolating and screening yeast strains as effective ethanol fermentation agents," said inventor Tom Jeffries of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory. "We believe that demand for ethanol as a fuel additive may increase with the discontinuation of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MBTE), as a fuel additive combined with the rise in oil prices. To help meet this potential demand, sugars from waste biomass and corn fiber, which have high xylose content, will need to be fermented. The focus of this technology is to develop efficient processes for the conversion of xylose into fuel ethanol and the commodity sweetener xylitol."