AquAgro invests $1.5 million in Transbiodiesel

Transbiodiesel, an Israeli biodiesel startup that is developing a novel technology to produce the fuel, has raised $1.5 million from the AquAgro Fund and signed a cooperation agreement with an unnamed American biodiesel company, according to a report in Globes.

The enzymatic process Transbiodiesel uses can apparently produce biodiesel in a more environmentally friendly manner. The overall process is also supposed to be cheaper than standard methods for making biodiesel.

Transbiodiesel CEO Sobhi Basheer founded the company at the L.N. Innovative Technologies Ltd. incubator's Agudat Hagalil Ltd. R&D center in the Israeli Arab city of Shfaram in the Galilee. Bashir helped established Agudat Hagalil in 1999.

Basheer and L.N. Innovative Technologies each own 35% of Transbiodiesel, AquaAgro owns 25%, and Altshuler Shaham Ltd. and Zeev Bronfman jointly own 5%.

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Environmental technology symposium at Tel Aviv University

On April 8, 2008, The Porter School of Environmental Studies (PSES), together with Ramot, the technology transfer company of Tel Aviv University (TAU), will hold a symposium on environmental technology research being carried out at TAU.

I had an opportunity to speak with the chair of the symposium, Dr. Eli Galanti, who is the Research Coordinator at PSES. According to Dr. Galanti, "The symposium will be aimed at giving a platform to the sizable number of studies in this field that have taken place at the university in recent years, and introducing researchers to interested parties from industry, government and the financial sector."

Dr. Galanti "anticipates that the symposium will enable participants to establish contacts in order to facilitate funding opportunities and commercialization options."

The program will include three different sessions, each featuring multiple researchers from TAU and chaired by a leading Israeli cleantech investor.

The first session, "Finding Alternative Energy: From solar and wind power to biofuels and hydrogen", will be chaired by Chen Altshuler, Director of Research at Altshuler Shaham, one of the leading investment houses in Israel. It was the first investment house in the region to establish a "green mutual fund" and is a major shareholder of "Ecocycle", a holding company which owns a green incubator and invests in private and very early stage green companies.

The second session, "Identifying Environmental Stresses: Water, air and soil", will be chaired by Booky Oren, President and CEO of the Arison Water Initiative, a $100m water-focused holding company. Mr. Oren was formerly CEO of the Mekorot, the Israel National Water Company.

The third session, "Improving the Environment: Remediation, rehabilitation, and smart agriculture", will be led by Jack Levy, General Partner at Israel Cleantech Ventures.

A complete program and list of presenters, and information about how to RSVP, is available online at the PSES web site.