Green Star Products Unveils Advanced Biodiesel Reactor
Green Star Products Inc (GSPI) announced that they have developed and successfully commercially tested their advanced biodiesel reactor. GSPI reactors require an amazing two minutes to complete the biodiesel conversion reaction versus over one hour for the rest of the industry. This means that GSPI's processing rate through the reactor is at least 30 times faster than the rest of the biodiesel industry.
Methes: The McDonald’s of Biofuel
by Debra Fiakas CFA Few would make the connection, so Methes Energies International (MEIL: Nasdaq) chief executive office explains his company’s unusual business model in McDonald’s terms. Methes, which is a contraction of ‘methyl ester,’ has developed a biodiesel system that accommodates various feedstocks that yield methyl esters. The system is a handsome, compact configuration of stainless steel tanks and piping that are all capable of automated operation. The company operates its own commercial-scale facilities in Ontario, Canada. Sales of biodiesel represent the majority of Methes revenue, which totaled $10.3 million in the twelve months ending...
Fretting Over FutureFuel
by Debra Fiakas CFA Earlier this week FutureFuel Corporation (FF: NYSE) reported financial results for the second quarter ending June 2015. Sales of the company’s biodiesel and specialty chemical products increased 53.7% to $104.6 million compared to the prior-year quarter when reported revenue was $68.0 million. The company delivered a profit as usual, but traders appeared unimpressed. The stock gapped lower on the news and two days later set a new 52-week low price. Granted net income was lower year-over-year by 30.9%, coming in at $3.8 million or $0.09 per share. A closer look...
FutureFuel: Still Future, Less Fuel
by Debra Fiakas CFA The last post “From Fuel to Fudge” discussed how the old Solazyme developer of algal-based renewable fuel has been transformed into a new company called TerraVia, (TVIA) which is pursing algal-based food and personal care products. Solazyme is not the only renewable fuel company to make an about face. Granted FutureFuel Corporation (FF: NYSE) has not changed its name or stock symbol like Solazyme. However, its ability to produce specialty chemicals has given FutureFuel an alternative to biofuels and its early plans to build a plant that could eventually produce 160 million gallons of...
Advantage Biodiesel
By Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
Because of rising fertilizer prices, farmers are planting more soybeans than corn. Soybeans are a legume, meaning that they can fix their own nitrogen in the soil, meaning that they need less nitrogen fertilizer, the price of which is spiking due to rising natural gas prices. Corn, in contrast, needs more nitrogen than most other crops.
High gas prices are rising because of Putin’s war on Ukraine, which is also preventing Ukrainian farmers from planting this year’s wheat crop, while sanctions are likely to disrupt wheat supplies from Russia as well.
Corn and (to a lesser extent,...
Renewable Fuel Producers Score A Win
Despite Trump’s vow to roll back all measures endorsed by Obama, his Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt is backing off plans to scuttle the U.S. biofuel policy. The Trump administration had planned to change regulatory standards to reduce the amount of renewable fuel that must be blended with conventional fossil fuel for gasoline and diesel supplies. In the third week in October 2017, Pruitt sent a letter to Congressional leadership indicating the renewable fuel volume mandates for 2018 would remain unchanged.
Most analysts saw the about face as a win for ethanol and renewable diesel producers such as Green Plains (GPRE: Nasdaq), FutureFuel...
FutureFuel Profits Preview
by Debra Fiakas CFA Biodiesel and biochemical producer FutureFuel Corporation (FF: NYSE) will report fourth quarter 2015 financial results after the market close today. No conference call will be held due to low attendance on recent calls. The single published estimate for FutureFuel is for $0.28 in earnings per share on $122.5 million in total sales. Despite an increase in this estimate in the last week, the number still represents a significant decrease in earnings compared to the prior-year period. The Company has missed the consensus estimate in both of the last two quarters and we do not...
EPA Slashes Corn Ethanol Targets Under Proposed Renewable Fuel Standard
Renewable Diesel Takes Smaller Cut Jim Lane “EPA continues to assert authority under the general waiver provision to reduce biofuel volumes based on available infrastructure,” says BIO. “This is a point that will have to be litigated. It goes against Congressional intent.” In Washington, the EPA released its proposed standards for 2014, 2015, and 2016 and volumes for renewable fuels. The volumes, as widely expected, include substantial reductions from the statutory standards in the original 2007 Energy Independence & Security Act. The EPA also released a 2017 proposed standard for biomass-based diesel. Yet, while attracting significant...
What I Sold: Nova Biosource Fuels (NBF)
Preparing for a world in which financing will be much more difficult to come by, I have been selling companies which are likely to need financing in the next couple of years. A listing of the companies I've discussed so far is at the end of this entry. My sale of Nova Biosource Fuels (AMEX:NBF) continues my general moves out of biofuels, also discussed in my entries on Pacific Ethanol and Dynamotive Energy Systems. I have long argued that electric propulsion is a superior way to power ground transport than even "Second Generation" biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol. My...
What I Sold: Dynamotive Energy Systems (OTC:DYMTF)
This entry continues a series on companies I sold as part of a portfolio cleanup prompted by the mess on Wall Street. In the first entry I described what I plan to do with the cash, followed by the reasons why I sold Carmanah Technologies and Pacific Ethanol. UQM Technologies was one I didn't sell. I have not mentioned Dynamotive Energy Systems (DYMTF) before. I have mixed feelings about the company. They use fast pyrolysis to make cellulosic biofuels, which I believe will prove to be one of the more economic pathways to cellulosic biofuels. However, I believe that...
3 Alternative Energy Stocks You Need to Know
In the face of a declining overall energy market today, three of our favorite alternative energy stocks posted strong gains on high volume. The Oil Services HOLDRs ETF (OIH) was down 2% and the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW) was down 1.7%. Indeed, the vast majority of the energy stocks that we track were in the red. But bucking the trend were two energy stocks that we have profiled in the recent past and a third company that we will begin covering today. First on the list is our favorite wind energy play, Welwind Energy International...
Hither and Yon: Transmission and Biofuels
In the most recent two installments of Energy Tech Stocks' interview with me cover my views on transmission stocks, and biofuel stocks. Readers of AltEnergyStocks know that I am a big fan of electricity transmission, a theme I keep coming back to. You also know that I have a very ambivalent relationship with both ethanol and biodiesel. So I liked Bill's transmission article, but I just wasn't able to convey to him the subtleties of how I feel about biofuels. But he got one thing right: the owners of biofuel feedstock are likely going to be the biggest winners....
Insider View on REGI
by Debra Fiakas CFA Insider buying is not one of my regular screening criteria in selecting long plays in the small cap sector. However, to learn a chief executive officer has taken out his/her check book to buy shares in their company is influential. In November 2016, the CEO of biofuel producer Renewable Energy Group (REGI: Nasdaq) reported an increase in his stake in the company in recent months. With REGI shares just above the prices paid by the CEO just three months ago, it is timely to look more closely from the outside. In...
List of Biodiesel Stocks
Biodiesel stocks are publicly traded companies whose business involves producing biodiesel made from oils and fats for use as a fuel diesel engines, either alone or blended with petroleum derived diesel. Common feedstocks include soybean oil, palm oil, and waste oils from the food industry. Biodiesel is the most widely produced and used advanced biofuel, and all biodiesel stocks are also biofuel stocks.
This list was last updated on 7/20/2022.
China Clean Energy Inc. (CCGY)
FutureFuel Corp. (FF)
Green Star Products, Inc. (GSPI)
Greenshift Corporation (GERS)
Methes Energies International (MEIL)
Neste Oil (NEF.F)
PetroSun, Inc. (PSUD)
RDX Technologies, Inc. (RDX.V)
If you know of any biodiesel stock that is...
Biodiesel Tax Credit Back In US Budget Deal
by Jim Lane
In Washington, the US Congress passed its budget deal, and among the items in the deal was a retroactive restoration of the $1 per gallon biodiesel tax credit for 2017. The bill did not include a provision for 2018 and future years.
The budget compromise had run into headwinds in the Senate, in the form of a voting delay imposed by Rand Paul of Kentucky, while opposition in the House from a group of Democrats and hardline conservatives had put the bill into some degree of jeopardy.Renewable Energy Group CEO Randy Howard said “We are pleased that Congress recognized...
Renewable Energy Group Raises $72 Million in Biodiesel IPO
Jim Lane In Iowa, the Renewable Energy Group IPO priced last night, and the company’s shares began trading Thursday on NASDAQ under the REGI symbol. The company sold 7.2 million shares at $10 per share, well below its midpoint target of $14 per share announced last week, with total proceeds of up to $82.8 million if all over-allotments are covered by underwriters. Without over-allotment sales, the offering will raise $72 million. UBS Securities LLC and Piper Jaffray & Co. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated and Canaccord...
