The US Department of Energy (DOE) has granted Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRS) a three-year multimillion-dollar contract for the development and production of cellulose-derived farnesene for biofuels.
The company is entitled to receive millions of dollars in funding annually over the duration of the project as it posts significant breakthroughs and discoveries in cellulosic farnesene.
DOE Project
Amyris will be working together with Renmatix and Total New Energies USA for the new project, which aims to use wood as the cellulosic feedstock in producing farnesene.
John Melo, Amyris CEO and President, explained that the project can possibly reduce the cost of farnesene to less than $1 per liter. Not only would it result to minimized biofuel costs or minimized production costs as a whole, it would also enable maximized renewable resource usage.
Basically, the project aims to expand the availability of farnesene around the world while exploring other potential applications for which it can be used as well.
Q2 and H1 Financial Highlights
Amyris has issued its second quarter earnings report last week, disclosing a quarterly revenue of $9.60 million, which is up from the revenue of $7.80 million reported during the same period last year.
Collaboration and Grants revenue accounted for nearly half of the total revenue for the period. Product revenue, on the other hand, jumped year-over-year to $4.90 million from $3.30 million.
For the first half of the fiscal year (FY) 2016, the company had a revenue of $18.40 million, which increased from a revenue of$15.79 million during the same quarter in 2015.
The company ended the six-month period with a net loss of $28.90 million, which is equivalent to a net loss per share of $0.13. This shows an improvement year-over-year from a net loss of $99.40 million, which was equivalent to a net loss per share of $1.25.
Melo reiterated that the second quarter is by far one of the best-performing periods of Amyris. Consequently, he said that the company is further encouraged by the progress it has seen in realizing its goals for the FY.
