Interview With Dan Oh, CEO Of Renewable Energy Group
Jim Lane Leading a series this week, “The Strategics Speak", in which we’ll look at what a number of major strategic investors see in the landscape relating to industrial, energy and agricultural investment, Biofuels Digest visited with Dan Oh, CEO of Renewable Energy Group (REGI), which has long been the US’s leading independent biodiesel producer but in recent years has steadily diversified and expanded operations. In many ways, REG is the entire industrial biotech business in a nutshelll. They’re fermentation (through REG Life Sciences), and thermocatalytic (through REG Geismar and their extensive biodiesel business). They use both...
North American Outlook on Biofuels Challenges and Opportunities
Challenges and Opportunities in Biofuels
By Steve Hartig, Former VP of Technology Development at ICM
The North American biofuels market can be split into three main segments all of which have major dynamics. What I would like to do is give a high-level overview of what I see as some of both the challenges and opportunities across these.
Ethanol which is a produced from corn and sorghum in about 200 plants mainly across the Midwest and blended at about 10% with gas. Majors such as POET, Green Plains, Flint Hills, Valero, ADM and Cargill do a bit more than half of the 16...
Dyadic: a 5-Minute Guide
Jim Lane Dyadic International, Inc. is a global biotechnology company that uses its patented and proprietary technologies to conduct research, development and commercial activities for the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of products and solutions for the bioenergy, industrial enzyme and biopharmaceutical industries. Address: 140 Intracoastal Pointe Drive Suite 404 Jupiter, Florida 33477 Year founded: 1979 Stock Ticker: Pink Sheets: DYAI Type of Technology(ies) Patented and proprietary C1 platform technology based on a unique fungal microorganism which is programmable and scalable in producing enzymes and proteins in large quantities ...
Rapidly Growing Alternative Energy Companies
The last post highlighted several companies in the alternative energy, conservation and environment technology fields that have delivered exceptional price performance over the last year. Prospects for growth in sales or earnings appeared to be key drivers of the price movement. It makes sense to seek indicators of growth as cues for those companies that may become tomorrow’s price movers.
Crystal Equity Research’s novel alternative energy indices were a good place to go on a ‘quest for growth.’
Beach Boys Index - Biodiesel
The two analysts who publish estimates for Renewable Energy Group (REGI: Nasdaq)apparently expect a surge in growth in the current year followed by a leveling...
EPA’s 2018 Renewable Fuel Targets Disappoint Producers
In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency released its final Renewable Fuel Standard renewable volume obligations for 2018. The agency finalized a total renewable fuel volume of 19.29 billion gallons , of which 4.29 BG is advanced biofuel, including 288 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel.
As the Renewable Fuels Association explained: “That leaves a 15 BG requirement for conventional renewable fuels like corn ethanol, consistent with the levels envisioned by Congress in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. The 2018 total RFS volume finalized today represents a minor increase (10 million gallons) over the 2017 standards, and a modest increase...
Renewable Energy Group Profits Exceed Subsidies
by Debra Fiakas CFA Earlier this month biodiesel producer Renewable Energy Group, Inc. (REGI: Nasdaq) reported a tidy profit of $22.3 million on record $1.0 billion in total sales. Reported net income was $43.5 million, including accounting treatments for corporate recapitalization undertaken in the year. Results from 2012 were noteworthy on a couple of counts. It was the first time in the company’s ten-year history (including years of operation among predecessor firms) that sales exceeded $1.0 billion. REGI produced 188 million gallons of biodiesel from a variety of feedstock, including non-edible corn oil, used...
Solazyme’s Oilcane Boom
Jim Lane Though building capacity globally, Solazyme’s operations in Brazil are getting traction fast – and raised $235M last week. How much oil could be produced in Brazil via sugar-munching microalgae? Today, the Digest looks at Solazyme’s (SZYM) progress and the bigger picture. In California, two monster announcements came out of Solazyme headquarters last week. One related to project finance and one related to raising cash. In midweek, Solazyme Bunge (BG) Renewable Oils received approval for project financing in the form of a $120M (R$245.6M) loan from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). ...
A (nearly) Pure-play Biodiesel Stock
On January 29th, M~Wave and private vertically integrated Biodiesel distributor Blue Sun Biodiesel announced a merger between the two, with Blue Sun becoming a division of M~Wave, and the merged company being renamed Blue Sun Holdings. Managerial control will also pass to "certain directors and the officers of SunFuels." If this merger goes through as planned in the second quarter of 2007, US investors will have their first opportunity to invest in a stock focused on a biofuel which is much less controversial among environmentalists than corn-based ethanol. Estimates of the well-to-wheels Energy Return on Energy Invested...
Green Star Products to Construct Total Bio-Refineries
Green Star Products Inc (GSPI) announced its plans to construct total Bio-Refinery Complexes for production of both biodiesel and biomass ethanol at each facility. The first Bio-Refinery is planned to be in North Carolina (see GSPI press release dated April 20, 2006) and the location of the second facility is to be announced soon in the northwestern sector of the United States. Each GSPI-designed Bio-Refinery will have a start-up production of between 10 or 20 million gallons per year with quick expansion capabilities. The facility infrastructure will be capable of expanding to 60 million gallons per year...
Darling Ingredients: At the Margin
by Debra Fiakas CFA This week Darling Ingredients (DAR: NYSE) reported earnings of $100,000 on net sales of $874.7 million in the first quarter ending March 2015. Darling is a recycler of sorts, collecting by-products of the food production industry and recycling the left-overs and waste into proteins, fats and leathers. Nothing goes to waste. Every last chicken feather, hide, gallon of used cooking grease and cake crumb gets up-cycled to a usable material for feed, food, fuel or clothing. Its customers include pet food producers, personal care manufacturers and textile users, among others. Darling used...
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...
Biofuels M&A: 2017 Review and Outlook
by Bruce Comer, Ocean Park Advisors
More industry players chose to develop and build new capacity rather than buy plants
The North American biofuels industry experienced the fewest merger and acquisition transactions in recent history in 2017. There were only six M&A transactions, with a total estimated value of more than $100 million. They involved eight plants with 297 million gallons per year (MGPY) of production capacity. Half of these deals were for non-operating plants. A fourth deal was for a sub-scale demonstration plant. Contributing to the limited deal flow, two historically active acquirers, Green Plains and REG, did not close...
EPA Ups Renewable Diesel Mandate By 30%
Jim Lane Biodiesel pump photo via Bigstock What will bigger targets mean for producers, livestock, obligated refiners, and the diesel-using public? In Washington, the EPA issued its final rule for 2013 establishing 1.28 billion gallons as next year’s biomass-based diesel volume requirement under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), up from 1.0 billion gallons in 2012. “This 1.28 billion gallon level is in-line with what the EPA had originally proposed for 2013 dating back to last year,” commented Raymond James energy analyst Pavel Molchanov. “However, the...
A Decade Of Unexpected Curves In The Bioeconomy
By Jim Lane
Over the years we’ve all seen a lot of curveballs in the advanced bioeconomy. You see companies like Valero, which lobby the United States Congress with unbridled intensity to get rid of the Renewable Fuel Standard, on the verge of becoming the single-biggest producer of RINs in the United States (with news that they might take capacity at Diamond Green Diesel up to 540 million gallons).
You see companies like Solazyme which love the Renewable Fuel Standard and drive up to nearly a billion-dollar post-IPO valuation based on delivering fuels at volume, then announcing that there are even...
Biofuel Industry Reacts To EPA New Renewable Fuel Standard
Yay or Nay for EPA? RFS Volumes out for 2020, Biodiesel for 2021 – What’s the reaction from industry?
by Jim Lane
What’s the reaction from industry? Coal for Christmas?
Should Santa bring coal for EPA’s stocking this year? Do the biofuels and agriculture industries think the EPA just put coal in their stocking? Is it thumbs up or thumbs down from biofuel industry advocates on last week’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency renewable fuel volumes? What about the exempted volumes?
The Ruling – Rotten or Respectable?
First, a bit on the EPA ruling that establishes the required renewable volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program for...
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.
