Viaspace forms new company in Singapore

Viaspace Inc. and its subsidiary, Viaspace Green Energy Inc., announced the incorporation of a new 100% owned company, Viaspace Green Energy Pte Ltd., in Singapore. The company is not releasing any further information about the new company at this time. The Chief Executive of Viaspace, Carl Kukkonen will be traveling to Asia to meet with partners and potential customers of the new company. Viaspace’s proprietary Giant King Grass has essentially the same properties as corn stover and wheat straw which are currently leading candidate feedstocks in the production of biofuels and also a range of biochemicals, according to a recent study. Kukkonen stated, “These initial results show that a ton of Giant King Grass can yield as much bioethanol as a ton of corn stover. This validates Giant King Grass, a non-food dedicated energy crop, as a competitive feedstock for producing cellulosic biofuels…Most importantly, an acre of Giant King Grass yields up to 10 times greater tonnage than an acre of corn stover, which is the stalk and leaves leftover from harvesting an acre of corn…With our high yield, we believe that Giant King Grass can reduce biofuel feedstock costs by up to 40%, even when compared to projected prices for corn straw as agricultural waste. As a result, Giant King Grass promises the cost-of-production breakthrough that has plagued the second-generation biofuels industry.” (March 18, 2011)