The Light On Blue Sphere’s Horizon
by Debra Fiakas CFA The stakes were high at the beginning of its fiscal year 2015, as Blue Sphere, Inc. (BLSP: OTC/QB), a developer of waste-to-energy projects, was facing deadlines to fulfill its contractual commitments to the sellers of its two ‘front burner’ waste-to-energy projects in North Carolina and Rhode Island. In the four intervening months it appears Blue Sphere has won all bets. Blue Sphere had purchased a biogas project from original owner Orbit Energy and had received an equipment financing commitment from Caterpillar. Unfortunately, an equity financing source withdrew its interest as...
Covanta Turns Ash Collector
Well into the early 1900s ash collectors plied the streets of America’s cities, picking up ash buckets left at curbs and stoops by households and businesses. The ash collectors sold as much as possible for brick making and soil improvement. The rest went to the handiest dumps.
Since then large utilities have taken over the job of heating and lighting buildings. Coal-fired power plants have become the largest producers of ash. The American Coal Ash Association reports that 53 million metric tons of coal cash were generated in 2013, of which 23 million metric tons were re-used for cement and bricks. The rest was stored...
Fulcrum Bioenergy’s $115M IPO: The 10-Minute Version
Jim Lane The first zero-cost feedstock biofuels company comes to the public markets with its IPO. Like to see how this “Back the the Futuresque” technology unlocks value by converting household garbage into transportation fuel? Here’s our 10-minute version of the IPO from Fulcrum Bioenergy. In California, Fulcrum Bioenergy has filed an S-1 registration statement for a proposed $115 million initial public offering. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. The company proposes to list under the symbol FLCM. UBS Investment Bank...
Covanta Rebounds
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
Waste handler Covanta Holding Company (CVA: NYSE) reported financial results for the first three months of the year at the beginning of May 2020. True enough the net loss might have been wider than published estimates for the quarter, but the consensus target did not reflect a one-time, non-cash charge for asset impairment. Indeed, Covanta’s sales climbed year-over-year to $468 million, of which $61 million was converted to operating cash flow. Waste handling is considered an essential service so Covanta operations remained at full operations even as many of its customers were subject to work stoppages and stay-at-home policies to...
The Muscle Car Of Energy Efficiency
Tom Konrad CFA Disclosure: I am long TSX:PRI / PENGF. The poster child of energy efficiency has long been changing a light bulb. First, it was swapping out an incandescent for a compact fluorescent, now the swap is to an LED. Changing a light bulb is a small step that anyone can take, and it’s so cost effective that it can pay for itself in months if the bulb is used frequently. This is a good example of household energy efficiency measures: a small action requiring a limited investment that anyone can take that pays back quickly....
Covanta: The Big Player In Waste-to-Energy
by Debra Fiakas CFA Covanta Holding Corp. (CVA: NYSE) is among the largest waste-to-energy developers and producers in the U.S. The company couples waste collection services for local government and industry with power generation for local municipal or commercial customers. Covanta’s waste handling and ‘mass-burn’ process also allows for metal recovery and sales. The company operates forty-six waste-to-energy facilities mostly in North America supported by eighteen waste transfer stations and four ash landfills. Covanta is a big player in the waste-to-energy industry, but what kind of yield does it's stock offer investors? Covanta’s management team...
Darling’s Renewable Diesel Diamond
In July 2013, Darling Ingredients (DAR: NYSE) and its joint venture partner Valero Energy (VLO: NYSE) commissioned the largest facility in North America to convert waste animal fats into renewable diesel. The facility was strategic located adjacent to Valero’s petroleum refining installation in Norco, Louisiana.
At the time the facility was capable of pumping out 12,000 barrels of renewable diesel per day that could be dropped directly into Valero’s distribution network and blended with fossil fuel. Even at that production level the facility showed promise to deliver strong dividends back to its owners. The partners named their venture Diamond Green Diesel and celebrated the unparalleled achievement.
The two partners in Diamond Green...
$3 Billion For Cleantech & Alt Energy
Charles Morand The DOE made public earlier today the amount of money that will awarded to clean power projects in lieu of the usual tax breaks: $3 billion. This will allow project proponents to receive a direct cash grant now instead of a Production Tax Credit or an Investment Tax Credit later on. The guidance document notes the following: "Section 1603 of the Act’s tax title, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act, appropriates funds for payments to persons who place in service specified energy property during 2009 or 2010 or after 2010 if construction began...
Advanced biofuels pioneer Terrabon files for chapter 7 bankruptcy: One-off or trend?
Jim Lane Closely-watched green gasoline producer collapses as Waste Management (WM) declines next financing round. What does it mean for companies like Fulcrum Bioenergy, Enerkem, Agilyx, Agnion, Renmatix, Genomatica, and InEnTec? The Digest looks at the inside story. In Texas, Terrabon filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection; the company’s operations will cease and a trustee will be tasked with liquidating the company’s assets for the benefit of creditors. The complete Chapter 7 announcement is here. In a statement, Terrabon’s leadership said that company could not obtain additional corporate funding to finish developing and engineering its...
Battling Food Waste: Blue Sphere
If ‘food waste’ was a country it would be ranked as the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world behind only China and the United States. To reach this conclusion the World Resources Institute used food waste data in 2011, and considered agriculture inputs, food processing, land use, deforestation, food waste disposal, and landfill impacts.
The carbon footprint of wasted food is a big one with cereals contributing about 35% of the greenhouse gas emissions even though is only about 19% of food waste volume. Meat on the other hand is a small part of the food waste problem as it...
Waste Management: Biogas with a Dividend
by Debra Fiakas CFA The biogas industry has attracted a number of new entrants. Blue Sphere (BLSP: OTCQB) described in the recent post “Turning Potato Peels to Power” and RDX Technologies (RDX: TO, described here) are both newcomers to the biogas power generation. Both companies show much promise and will likely grow dramatically over the next few years. Shareholders are counting on the stock prices to follow. Investors who are less interested in the big growth play and more interested in stability and current income are not left out. There are larger, more...
The X Factor in Covanta’s Capital Budget
Debra Fiakas, CFA The Waste Hierarchy, with energy from waste highlighted In the last post “Covanta on a Mission to Up-cycle Municipal Waste," I noted that even a group of experts advising Covanta Holding (CVA: NYSE), has some concerns about the wisdom of channeling municipal waste through mass burn facilities like those of Covanta. Recycling and reuse are considered even higher uses for municipal waste that result in net lower toxic emissions and net higher energy savings or energy generation. For example, a report published by...
Will Higher Heat Content in Trash Help Waste-to-Energy Stocks?
Tom Konrad CFA The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently published an article describing an increase in the energy content of municipal solid waste (MSW). The reason for this increase is an increase in the percentage of waste from “non-biogenic” sources (i.e. plastics) as compared to biogenic sources (paper, cardboard, wood, food and yard waste, etc.) Biogenic waste has an average heat content of 11 MMBtu/ton, as compared to 23 MMBtu/ton for non-biogenic waste. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, derived from U.S. Enivoronmental Protection Agency, Municipal Solid Waste data. ...
Covanta Turns Waste into Cash
Debra Fiakas, CFA The Waste Hierarchy, with energy from waste highlighted The self-styled “energy-from-waste” company Covanta Holding (CVA: NYSE) turns municipal waste into electricity and recycled metals. The operations also turned 21.9% of its revenue into cash in 2011. We note that the conversation ratio has declined over the last three years from 28.7% in 2009 and 27.2% in 2010, but we are still impressed with any cash conversion rate over 20%. The company operates forty-one mass-burn facilities around the U.S. that burn all manner...
Fiberight: A Deep-Dive Into Trash To Find Cash
by Jim Lane. Biofuels Digest
This week Fiberight secured $70 million for a municipal solid waste center that should be in operation by this May. The high-tech facility will convert 180,000 tons of trash each year from more than 100 Maine towns into biofuel at a 144,000-square-foot steel frame facility that began construction last July.
We visually profile the technology and company in our Multi-Slide Guide here.
The underlying facility is what’s known as a Dirty MRF, or materials recovery facility. That’s where the receiving happens and the sortation begins — and the process of recovering value back from the waste stream begins.
The bottom line...
Blue Sphere To Start Biogas Commercial Operations
by Debra Fiakas CFA The Blue Sphere, Inc. (BLSP: OTC/QB), stock price has weakened in recent months as investors registered their apparent frustration with fundamental developments. Proposed acquisitions of operating biogas power plants in Italy have taken much longer than expected and majority interest in planned biogas plants in the U.S. were sold into joint venture arrangements rather than held as 100% equity positions. Despite these developments, Blue Sphere management has doggedly moved forward on all fronts and there has been measurable progress toward first revenue. Commercial operation dates have been set for...
