Amyris Raises Funds For Commercial Plant

Amyris Biotechnologies has raised $41.75 million in a round of venture capital funding. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company expects to raise another $60 million this fall, bringing its total funding to $165 million. Amyris recently opened a pilot plant in Campinas, Brazil, to demonstrate its technology for converting sugars into diesel fuel and chemicals. The company plans to commercialize its first renewable product in 2011. In addition, it says it signed an agreement to make a chemical for a leading company and a separate deal with one of the world’s largest consumer products makers to develop chemicals from renewable resources.