About mcr
mcr is the acronym for the methyl-coenzyme M reductase. It is the only known enzyme capable of catalyzing the biological formation of methane. Biological methane is formed in anaerobic digestion and exclusively by archae, the third kingdom of organisms. When it is formed biologically, the resulting gas is called biogas, which not only contains methane but also carbon dioxide and traces of other gases such as hydrogen sulfide. During biogas upgrading biogas is separated into methane (CNG) and carbon dioxide, which are both captured, and remaining trace gas.
About the Team
Dipl-Ing. Michael R. Schuppenhauer, Ph.D., CEO, has over 25 years of scientific, engineering, finance and business experience in cleantech, renewable energy and biosciences. Michael built and operated his first anaerobic digester in 1987. He has been active in the US in the field of biogas and biofuels since 2006, and from 2011 to 2016 he was the CEO & President of Farmatic Inc., a turnkey AD EPC. Previously, Michael worked for Hambrecht & Quist (now JP Morgan) and with McKinsey & Company in biotechnology. He raised close to $100 million in two biopharma IPOs, and established and raised two successful venture funds in life sciences. Michael holds a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Hamburg in Germany and a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). In 1991 he was a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley for his master’s thesis on thermophilic microorganisms. Since 2014 he has won two DOE grants with more than $7 million in grant funds that specifically seek to further the understanding and application of AD at industrial scale in the US, and is leading the collaboration with other industrial partners, several universities and two national labs (NREL & LBNL). He is a frequent, invited speaker at research and business conferences on the topic of biogas and anaerobic digestion. Michael is married and proud father of one daughter. He has competed on national level in 50 and 100 mile endurance rides on horseback, and is a certified drysuit and black-water diver volunteering with the local sheriff's office.