Biomass

Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) announces that its biogas facility at the Whitesides dairy has achieved its production goal two months after starting up the plant. The flow of biogas significantly exceeds the 30 cubic feet per minute yield the company had predicted for the two-digester tank system. This is a significant milestone in the company's business plan. Specifications for gas conditioning equipment, that will bring the Methane to pipeline quality, are now being established based on actual gas yields. Preparations are underway to begin using produced biogas as process heating for the digesters, eliminating the use...

by Debra Fiakas CFA Solid waste has been one of the business types that has a natural hedge against macroeconomic distress.  No matter how bad things get, as long as our neighbors draw breath there will be trash to handle.  Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (CWST:  Nasdaq) sits in the shadow of larger waste handlers such as Waste Management (WM:  NYSE) and Republic Services (RSG:  NYSE).  Consequently, it is often passed over by investors despite a significantly better profit margin. One of the reasons investors might not take Casella seriously is its history of net losses.  However, the...

DynaMotive Energy Systems Corp. (DYMTF) announced that it has granted a master license to Rika Ltd., a company that has extensive operations in Latvia and Ukraine. Under the Agreement, Rika has agreed to market DynaMotive's technology as well as develop and operate facilities in the territories. Two projects are initially targeted for development. Rika Ltd. and DynaMotive have further agreed to scope the feasibility of bio energy crops in Ukraine, where Rika has leased 25,000 hectares of farm land. The companies are considering the allocation of 10,000 hectares for growth of biomass for BioOil production. Once in production,...

Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) announces that the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has provided written concurrence that the Whitesides Biogas Facility meets the permit to construct exemption requirements of Idaho rules for the control of air pollution. Intrepid submitted an exemption request based on calculations and modeling of air emissions for the plant. To the company's knowledge, no other dairy digester system has produced the emissions modeling to receive an exemption. Two compounds of sulfur in digester emissions, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide, are regulated under the Clean Air Act. The Whitesides Biogas facility has sulfur removal...

Colorado voters have approved an amendment requiring utilities to get part of their electricity from the sun, wind or plant and animal waste. The amendment requires the state's seven largest utilities to get a portion of their retail electricity sales from renewables, beginning with 3 percent in 2007 and climbing to 10 percent by 2015. Four percent of the renewables should be solar sources.

Environmental Power Corp (POWR) announced today that it has signed an agreement with Seifert Dairy Farms of Acampo, CA for the on-farm location of an animal feed production system based on Microgy's anaerobic digester ("AD") technology. The Seifert Dairy project is the second such facility proposed for development under Microgy's Feed System Project Development Agreement with The Scoular Company ("Scoular"), a $2.3 billion in sales merchandiser of agricultural commodities. As previously announced, this Development Agreement anticipates Microgy constructing up to 50 systems designed to use an efficient, environmentally sound process to produce animal feed.

"Experts generally agree that our current reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable. Already oil is near $50 per barrel, and the great millions of Chinese and Indians destined to take to the road in the next decades have not yet gotten behind the wheel." This week Newsweek has written several special reports about alternative energy in all its forms. All of these reports can be found at the following link.

Green Energy Resources, Inc. (GRGR) announced it has met with Chinese government ministers to discuss Renewable Energy. Negotiations were led by Mr. Andrew Tong of Green Energy Resources China office. China enacted a new Renewable Energy law in March, and signed the international Kyoto Treaty. Discussions center on a 10 year, 250 million ton deal to deliver wood biomass for Co-firing to China. Green Energy Resources would buy 10 woodchip ships built and manufactured in China valued around $350 million dollars, and provide shipping lease back options to the Chinese government in the future.

Infectech Inc (IFEC) has signed a feasibility study with the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering of Gannon University in Erie, PA to develop a bioreactor which utilizes Infectech's patented bacterial culturing methods in order to produce hydrogen inexpensively. Infectech believes the most likely method for low cost production of massive quantities of hydrogen as an alternate energy source is hydrogen combustion using Clostridia bacteria, which produces hydrogen as a by-product. Infectech has ascertained through its patent counsel that there are eleven relevant U.S. patents concerning the database containing the terms "Clostridia" and "Hydrogen Production." Infectech presently owns...

Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) has completed all required testing on their bioreactor located at the Whitesides dairy near Rupert, Idaho and have began the process of loading animal waste from the dairy into the twin 35,000 gallon tanks. This is a significant development for this company. The stock is trading up over 10% today on this news. The next milestone is a confirmation of the methane gas output for this plant and if it will meet or exceed projections.

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 CS Monitor has a good article about the investment potential of Alternative Energy stocks. "You can't ride off into the sunset with a hydrogen-powered SUV - or to a middle-class solar home. But as the decades-long transition away from oil begins to take shape, some ethical investors sense a bonanza. "

by Debra Fiakas CFA Last week Brazilian agriculture technology developer Ceres (CERE:  Nasdaq) made formal plans to shift its focus to seed traits and the food and feed markets and away from energy.  Ceres is not abandoning biofuels as such, but with oil prices at historic low levels, it is not economic enough to justify working capital not to mention new investments.   The company is restructuring operations and reducing personnel in both its U.S. and Brazilian operations.  Ceres management estimates the changes will save between $6 million and $8 million next year. The question investors need to...

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...

Clean Break has found another company to add to the watchlist. DynaMotive Energy Systems Corp. (DYMTF), uses a patended "pyrolysis" process to convert forest and agricultural waste everything from sawdust to tree bark into a clean-burning renewable fuel it calls BioOil. This fuel can be used for power generation in gas turbines, diesel engines and boilers. Tyler has a nice writeup about the company at his CleanBreak website. DynaMotive joins Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. (IESV) and Green Energy Resources (GRGR) in the biomass space on my watchlist. They are also trying to compete...

Environmental Power Corp (EPG) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Microgy, Inc. has entered into agreement with Applied LNG Technologies USA, Inc. , for the development of biogas-supplied LNG projects in California. The Agreement provides that Microgy and ALT (http://www.altlngusa.com) will cooperate to identify, evaluate and develop projects, principally in California, that combine Microgy's anaerobic digestion technology, which extracts methane-rich biogas from animal waste, and ALT's LNG transport and distribution technology.