Evogene, Orfuel and Leviev Group to establish biodiesel company in Namibia, Africa

Evogene, Orfuel, and the Leviev Group have announced an agreement to establish a biodiesel company in Namibia, Africa.

The new company will be focused on the growth of specialized castor plants for use as feedstock for biodiesel. It will be headquartered in Namibia, with operations in Namibia and possibly other African countries.

Evogene and Orfuel, an Ormat subsidiary, have already been working together since September 2007 on developing non-edible plants for commercial biodiesel production, and the castor plants for the new venture will be selected from varieties being developed in the Evogen-Orfuel collaboration. The collaboration is being funded with a grant from the BIRD Foundation.

Land for the crop growth will come from the Leviev Group, which will also provide logistical infrastructure for the project.

"This collaboration fits well into Evogene's business model in the field of biodiesel, and constitutes an additional stage towards commercialization of the plants developed through the joint project with Orfuel in one of the potential target locations," stated Ofer Haviv, Evogene's president and CEO. "We are convinced that with our extensive capabilities in plants together with the vast experience of the Leviev Group in Africa, we will be able to develop improved feedstock addressing the needs of the alternative fuel industry."

Netafim in negotiations with sugarcane ethanol project in Mozambique

In other news, BioEnergy Africa has raised $15.2 million on the London Stock Exchange to fund development of a 438 million liters per yea sugercane ethanol plant in Mozambique.

The company is in discussions with Tel Aviv, Israel-based Netafim to design, procure, and install a subsurface drip irrigation system for the project’s cane fields. At full capacity, the project will include approximately 60,500 acres of planted sugarcane.

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Monsanto to invest in Evogene, collaborate on plant research

Monsanto Co., and Israel's Evogene Ltd., which develops improved plants for agriculture and novel feedstocks for biofuels, recently entered into a five-year research and development collaboration focused on identifying key plant genes related to yield, environmental stress and fertilizer utilization.

The collaboration aims to "discover and deliver novel, yield-enhancing technologies at a time of increasing demand for grain globally," the companies said in a statement.

Under the terms of the collaboration, Evogene will provide Monsanto with candidate genes discovered by Evogene's computational platform and Monsanto will pay Evogene $35 million over the research term of the collaboration. Products that emerge from the gene discovery program will be commercialized by Monsanto, and Monsanto will pay Evogene additional milestone and royalty payments based on sales of any resulting products.

In a separate agreement, Monsanto has purchased an $18 million equity stake in Evogene and has agreed to purchase an additional $12 million in the future, subject to certain Evogene due diligence requirements.

In April, 2008, AquAgro Fund, an Israeli cleantech-focused venture capital fund, agreed to invest $2 million in Evogene at a price of NIS 6.5 per share. Following the Monsanto annoucement, Evogene shares are now trading at NIS 8.78 per share on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Martin Gerstel, Chairman of Evogene, stated, "Having the world's leading agriculture company as a major collaborator moving forward is clearly a transforming event in the history of our company, and we welcome Monsanto as a shareholder. Furthermore, with its new financial commitment, we are now convinced that Evogene has the resources required to agressively pursue our two primary areas of interest -- improved plants for agriculture and novel feedstocks for biofuels."

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Ormat backs of biodiesel facility, to continue collaboration with Evogene

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Ormat backs off biodiesel facility, to continue collaboration with Evogene

Ormat Industries Ltd. today announced that it is postponing plans to develop and build a commercial biodiesel facility. Ormat announced 18 months ago that it would invest $35-50 million in a biodiesel production facility within two years. Ormat is foregoing construction of the biodiesel plant because prices for commodities, including commodities for biofuel production, have soared rendering biodiesel much more expensive to the point of not being economically viable.

Ormat, however, will continue to focus on its collaboration with an academic institution, whose identity it declines to disclose, and with Evogene Ltd. on the development of plants for biodiesel production.

In December 2007, Orfuel, an Ormat subsidiary, and Rehovot-based Evogene, a leading Ag-Biotech company, signed an agreement with the BIRD Foundation (Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation) to obtain a $1 million grant for support of a joint biofuel project.

According to a press release issued by the companies, Evogene and Orfuel are collaborating to develop non edible plants displaying improved oil yield and capable of being grown in non arable lands, thus address key problems facing the biofuel industry. These plants are expected to significantly decrease feedstock costs for biodiesel production. Under terms of the collaboration, Evogene will utilize its advanced biotechnological capabilities (such as gene and molecular marker discovery), in the development of the enhanced crops which will then be evaluated in field trials conducted by Orfuel. In addition, Orfuel will evaluate suitability and methodologies for using such crops for biodiesel production. Upon project completion, Evogene and Orfuel intend to establish a joint venture aimed at commercialization of the developed plants

Evogene and Orfuel receive biodiesel grant

Evogene Ltd. and Orfuel Inc., a US subsidiary of Ormat Industries Ltd., have signed an agreement with the BIRD Foundation (Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation) to obtain a $1 million grant for support of a joint biofuel project.

The Evogene and Orfuel joint project is aimed at providing substantially improved feedstock sources for biodiesel production. The companies will collaborate to develop non-edible plants that display improved oil yields and are capable of being grown in non-arable lands, thus addressing key problems facing the industry.

(Sourced here)