S.D. Company Key Player in New Bioenergy Research Centers

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published June 27, 2007 at 6:48 AM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding three new bio-energy research centers. The goal is to come up with economical ways to use plant-based fuels as an alternative to gasoline. As KPBS Reporter Ed

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding three new bio-energy research centers. The goal is to come up with economical ways to use plant-based fuels as an alternative to gasoline. As KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce tells us, one San Diego company is a key player in the process.

The San Diego Company is Verenium Corporation . If the name doesn't sound familiar that's because it used to be called Diversa Corp until a recent merger. But the research work continues in San Diego. Dan Robertson is with the company's biofuels research and development division. He says the company develops and discovers ways to break down agricultural waste and plants - or biomass - by using enzymes.

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Robertson: We go out into the environment, places like for example termite guts. Termites are a great little biotope for breaking down cellulosic biomass into small molecules and fermentable molecules."

He says company researchers found that genes from the termite guts break down the biomass. Extracting those fermentable sugars is a step in the creation of biofuels. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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