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LS9 Stock

There was a major story a few days ago about LS9 in the Times Online:

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

I have previously written several articles that mentioned LS9, including:

LS9’s Oil-Crapping Bugs

Apparently as a result of the Times article, there have been a number of articles in the past couple of days on LS9. This naturally attracted the attention of investors, and I have literally had hundreds of hits to my LS9 story by people Googling LS9 stock. In fact, right now if you Google that (without quotation marks), my story comes up at the top of the first page.

So, in an effort to provide investors what they are looking for (the other LS9 story doesn’t provide this information): There is no publicly traded LS9 stock. LS9 is privately held. They have only taken on private equity. I have had some contacts with Greg Pal at LS9 in the past, so I wrote to ask him whether they were still accepting investments. His answer: We’re not accepting outside investment at this time. So, right now you are out of luck if you want to invest in LS9.

You might try LS9 competitor Virent. They are also private, but they might be open to outside investors. Contacting them may be worth a shot.

June 17, 2008 - Posted by Robert Rapier | LS9, Virent, investing | | 7 Comments

7 Comments »

  1. Related: Scientists Find Bug That Eats Petrol and Excretes Waste.

    Comment by Anonymous | June 17, 2008

  2. We keep reading about potential breakthroughs in biofuels. I hope it is not a case of “bio is the fuel of the future, and always will be.”
    Algae oil, jatropha (my fave) or oil-excreting bugs. Diesel trees.
    I hope they all work.

    Comment by benny "peak demand" cole | June 17, 2008

  3. I was just reading an article in the March issue of Discover (”Super Bugged” ;) about how bacterial resistance to antibiotics spreads between multiple species via “DNA pollution.” It seems that DNA fragments containing antibiotic-resistant genes are plentiful in common dirt these days, and these can be picked up by other bacteria. “Bacteria can even scavenge the naked DNA that spills from their dead compatriots out into the environment.” What happens when the petro-crapping bugs’ modified genes are assimilated by common microbes? Imagine everyday soil bacteria crapping out oil in the topsoil where they live. Every too-good-to-be-true breakthrough has its downsides.

    Comment by drumboy | June 17, 2008

  4. I suspect drumboy, that any bug with high enough conversion of non-specific natural feedstocks into petrol to pose a danger to the environment is LS9’s (and a lot of other people’s) wet dream rather than something to be cautious of at this point.

    Comment by jobst | June 18, 2008

  5. Isn’t this the coolest thing ever? If someone had told me 20 years ago they could make designer bugs that crapped gasoline,diesel,or crude oil,I’d have called the men with butterfly nets. I’m pretty confident a number of these companies will hit the ground running. Here’s hoping they ramp up quickly. Just read your august article Robert. You apparently saw this coming all along. Awesome.

    Hey,you’ve got to love the energy in,energy out in this scenario. What with the bacteria doing all the work. They’re saying 100 btu’s of plant material will result in 90 btu’s of fuel.

    Comment by Maury | June 18, 2008

  6. Do they fart natural gas?

    Comment by Paul | June 18, 2008

  7. “Do they fart natural gas?”

    Do they sweat lubricant?

    Comment by |3run0 | June 19, 2008

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