COLLEGE STATION, Texas, October 17, 2007 (ENS) - The Texas A&M University System today announced it has formed a joint venture company with a Pennsylvania-based venture capital firm to help turn promising energy and agricultural research into marketable products.

The new venture company, AgFuture Energy LLC, is half owned by the A&M System, and the other half is owned by New Hope Partners, a business development, capitalization and advisory company based in Philadelphia.

New Hope specializes in value-added, agricultural and renewable energy based start-up ventures.

Bud Cary, a partner in New Hope Partners, will serve as managing director of AgFuture Energy.

"The sheer number and extent of the opportunities are enormous," Cary said. "The value of the research taking place at Texas A&M University and the global reach and reputation of the entire A&M System already are generating a wealth of new ideas and potential partners to commercialize existing and developing technologies."

One of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, the A&M System encompasses nine universities, seven state research agencies and a health science center. The A&M System educates more than 101,000 students and externally funded research brings in $600 million every year.

"This new venture represents another example of the A&M System’s commitment to finding new ways to meet the energy needs of our state, nation and world by developing strategic partnerships," said A&M System Chancellor Michael McKinney.

"Already we are at the forefront of helping develop clean, renewable bioenergy through our new BioEnergy Alliance. The alliance brings together the vast resources and intellectual capital of our two premier research agencies in agriculture and engineering, the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station."

AgFuture Energy initially will focus on technologies supporting the bioenergy industry.

Among the first projects the company will pursue is partnering with the Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers Association to build a facility that can convert crops like sorghum into cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulosic ethanol production currently exists at the pilot and commercial demonstration scale, and research is still needed to unlock the sugars and make them available for ethanol production.

According to U.S. Department of Energy studies, one of the benefits of cellulosic ethanol is that it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent over reformulated gasoline.

By contrast, corn ethanol, which most frequently uses natural gas to provide energy for the production process, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 18 to 29 percent compared to gasoline.

The establishment of a company like AgFuture Energy creates a new model for universities and university systems in partnering with the private sector, said Guy Diedrich, vice chancellor for technology commercialization for the A&M System.

"We are engaging with New Hope Partners, a firm with extensive expertise in the complexities of forming specialized start-up companies. Through this public-private partnership, AgFuture Energy, we will be able to accelerate the entire research and development process and commercialize a number of technologies," said Diedrich.

"Additionally," he said, "we will work with A&M System researchers in earlier stages of their work, encouraging them to develop technologies that have commercialization potential to more directly address the needs of our society and create jobs for Texans."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.