Vinid Khosla helped found Sun Microsystems together with Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim and Bill Joy in 1982. After leaving Sun Microsystems he dabbled in Venture Capital funding and is currently into Ethanol Production.
He recently wrote an article in wired magazine where he explains why he is betting on Biofuels for the future. A staunch proponent for the use of ethanol as alternative fuel, he has campaigned for the passage of Proposition 87 in California which seeks to levy a tax on Oil comapanies pumping oil from California. California, being the only state which does not impose a royalty on Oil companies for extracting their oil, could add to benefit from this tax to fund alternative energy projects to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
He also touches on a company he is investing in, called Kergy, that has developed a machine which makes ethanol via thermal conversion rather than the more popular fermentation method (like making beer) which requires enzymes. This is done by heating bio-mass in an oxygen free environment and producing carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The resulting carbon monoxide and hydrogen are reconstituted into ethanol in a matter of minutes. The end benefit being that I’m seeing, is that you can produce Ethanol quickly, therefore requiring less production space in the conversion process (You can dedicate everything to storage.) And since you are extracting the ethanol from Biomass; you can use waste material as an input product (wood chips, paper pulp, and manure are some examples given.) Which makes it all the more exciting considering that this could be a partial solution to the garbage problem.
He also debunks the negative myths of ethanol use through his article : Six Ethanol Myths
Category: Bioethanol
