Investing In Wood Pellets, Part I
Last week, I mentioned that I had attended a conference focused on opportunities in the biomass and bioenergy sectors. One of the article ideas I got from this conference was on the emerging market for wood pellets (tightly packed sawdust and other wood shavings) for heat and electricity. How interesting that, over the weekend, the magazine Science published an article suggesting that the US should ramp up its use of wood for small-scale heat and electricity production (the article is not available free of charge but you can find a summary here). The Wood (Pellet) Advantage It...
Clean Diesel Technologies Announces Significant Emissions Reductions from Independent Testing of Platinum Plus Fuel...
Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (CDTI) announced today that it has completed extensive independent testing of its Platinum Plus® fuel-borne catalyst (FBC) in a wide range of fuels on four different engines at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Results from these tests confirm that the FBC, when added to various commercial diesel fuels, can provide up to 35 percent reduction in diesel particulate emissions (PM) and up to 11 percent NOx reduction. Both particulates and NOx are a major focus of worldwide efforts to reduce diesel emissions, and the U.S. EPA has challenged the industry to clean up the...
DynaMotive Announces MOU with Mitsubishi Canada Limited for Marketing and Distribution of Dynamotive’s Fast...
DynaMotive Energy Systems Corp. (DYMTF) announced today that the Company and Mitsubishi Canada Ltd., have entered into a wide-ranging Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") which expresses their mutual intentions to develop definitive agreements for marketing and distribution of DynaMotive's patented technology in Canada and internationally. Clean Break has more to say about this agreement as well. This is the second MOU announcement they have made in the last month and it looks like something is happening here. This stock has been moving strong this last month and it has piqued my interest. I will have to...
Brazilian Sugar Miller COSAN Begins Use Of O2Diesel
O2Diesel Corp (OTD) announced that one of the largest sugar millers and ethanol producers in the world, COSAN (annual revenues of US$500 million) of Brazil, began using O2Diesel(TM) in the diesel powered fleet located at their mill in Barra Bonita, State of Sao Paulo. This mill is the world's largest sugar and ethanol production facility with the capacity to process 6.8 million tons of sugar cane per year. The patented fuel technology developed by O2Diesel Corporation of Newark, Delaware, will be used in a wide variety of trucks and agricultural equipment. COSAN operates 12 mills in Southeastern Brazil with...
Cellulosic Ethanol and Advanced Biofuels Investments
There's much excitement about second generation biofuels made from cellulosic feedstocks and algae, be they cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, biocrude, or electricity from biomass. There will be winners, but they may not be the technology companies. Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA At the 2009 Advanced Biofuels Workshop, there were two major themes: developing new feedstocks, especially algae, and the development of new pathways to take biomass into products such as biocrude, which can be used in exiting oil refineries. Big Market, Many Competitors The current federal Renewable Fuel Standard requires the use of 36 million gallons of biofuels, including at...
List of Biomass Stocks
Biomass stocks are publicly traded companies whose business involves growing, collecting, or using biological matter (biomass) which can be used to make some other form of energy. Biomass includes human waste, municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, as well as industrial wastes such leftover wood from logging operations.
4energy Invest (ENINV.BR)
Andritz Group (ADRZF)
Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (RKDA)
BioAmber (BIOA)
Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. (BNET)
Bunge, Ltd. (BG)
Claymore/Clear Global Timber Index (CUT)
Darling Ingredients (DAR)
Deltic Timber Corp. (DEL)
EcoSynthetix, Inc. (ECO.TO)
Enviva Partners, LP (EVA)
IQ Global Agribusiness Small Cap (CROP)
iShares Global Timber & Forestry Index Fund (WOOD)
John Deere (DE)
Market Vectors® Environmental Services ETF (EVX)
Pinnacle Renewable Holdings Inc. (PL.TO)
Plum Creek...
RCAI & Topia Energy Production Ltd. to Partner on Biodiesel Production & Distribution Company
Reclamation Consulting and Applications Inc (RCAA) announced the signing of a Letter of Intent between Topia Energy Production Ltd. and RCAI to create a new company called Topia Global Energy. This Joint Venture company, to be owned 50/50 by Topia Energy Production Ltd. and RCAI, will focus on the production and distribution of BioDiesel worldwide.
Bagasse – the Big Prize
Jim Lane Like MSW? You’ll love bagasse. Lot of the advantages of waste, and there’s a lot more available. Heaps of bagasse, covered with blue plastic, outside of a sugar mill in Proserpine, Queensland. Image via Wikipedia. Sugar’s the new oil, DOE Secretary Steven Chu is fond of saying. Codexis agrees, but argues that sugarcane residue (instead of competing for cane syrup) is the path to the real riches. Petroleum – we all know what it is, but what does...
The Great Algae Flour Fight: Solazyme Wins Again
Jim Lane
After the bizarre attempted heist detailed in The Great Algae Robbery, Roquette tries the US courts but comes up short, in its quest to get a hold of Solazyme’s (SZYM) algae tech.
On a slow news day just before Christmas, those of us on the industrial biotechnology beat have no need to stop by the firehouse to ask if there is a breaking story to report, because we always have the lively docket of Judge Sue Robinson, Federal District Judge for the District of Delaware.
This Christmas she did not fail us, for in our Christmas news stocking is a...
ITR Receives Alternate Energy Grant
Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) has signed a contract with the Idaho Department of Water Resources Energy Office, whereby a $289,000 U.S. Department of Energy grant will be awarded to ITR. The funds will be used to upgrade ITR's Idaho Falls alternative vehicle fuel Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station. Upon completion, the modifications will transform the CNG station to a state-of-the-art Liquid Natural Gas/Compressed Natural Gas (LNG/CNG) public fueling facility.
Darling Soldiers
by Debra Fiakas CFA This week Darling Ingredients (DAR: NYSE) reported financial results for the quarter ending December 2015, demonstrating management’s collective ability to manage margins in a period of low inflation. The fourth quarter 2015 top-line was $809.7 million, providing $84.4 million in net income or $0.52 per share. Revenue was 19.1% lower than the same period last year, but net income increased by 20.7% year-over-year. Weak commodity prices led to lower sales volumes and selling prices that translated into lower year-over-year revenue. At the same time the commodity market compression also reduced raw materials...
Ag Goddess Smiles Favorably on Ceres, Investors Frown
by Debra Fiakas CFA Recently, in compiling our lists of remarkable small-cap stock trades, I was surprised to find the shares of Ceres, Inc. (CERE: Nasdaq) among stocks setting new 52-week lows. Ceres has only been trading since its initial public offering in February 2012, when the company sold 5.0 million shares at $13.00 per share. After a brief trade higher in the early spring, Ceres shares have been steadily losing ground, finally setting an all-time low of $6.02 last week. Named after the Greek Goddess of Agriculture, Ceres is a self-styled energy crop producer. Ceres...
Rentech: Pulp, Pellets and Fertilizer
by Debra Fiakas CFA A shareholder group has taken aim at alternative energy and fertilizer producer Rentech, Inc. (RTK: Nasdaq), offering a slate of nominees for the next election of directors. They claim Rentech management is overpaid and doing a very poor job of executing on the company’s strategic plans. The nominees were a focus of discussion in the last post. Now we will take a closer look at Rentech’s operations. The majority of Rentech’s revenue is generated from the sale of fertilizer products from the Company’s plants in Dubuque, Iowa and Pasadena, California. Rentech earns...
Ceres, Inc.: a 5-Minute Guide
Jim Lane Address: 1535 Rancho Conejo Blvd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 Founded: 1996 Annual Revenues: $6.6 million (Fiscal Year ended Aug. 31, 2011) Type of technology: Plant biotechnology, gene marker-assisted breeding and other genomics Fuel Type: Biomass is the common denominator to advanced biofuels, biopower and bioproducts and is independent of the end-fuel molecule. Major investors: Ceres is a public company. Its common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol CERE. Pre-IPO investors include Warburg Pincus, Soros Private Equity Partners, GIMV and Oppenheimer. Past milestones: Completed IPO...
Solid Play in Solid Waste
by Debra Fiakas CFA The last article “Advanced Disposal Services: Hauling a Heavy Load” on July 18th inspired a closer look at the solid waste management sector in which it competes. The solid waste industry is growing at a good pace between 1.6% and 2.0% per year, largely on population growth and the human penchant for consumption and waste. In the U.S. solid waste collection is still populated by many localized, family-owned businesses, despite the emergence of several large consolidators that now command as much as 55% of the revenue in waste handling and disposal. Fragmentation creates...
First Container Load of Biodiesel Shipped to Asia
American Biofuels (ABF), a biodiesel production company 35% owned by Green Star Products Inc (GSPI), announced today that its first container load of U.S. produced biodiesel is on its way to Asia. The ABF shipment is believed to be the largest order of biodiesel ever shipped from the United States to Asia. The oceangoing container carries approximately 6,000-gallons of biodiesel packaged in over 100-barrels. This is a first major step in opening Asian markets to U.S. produced biodiesel and biodiesel technology.
