NextFuels wants to make fuel from palm oil production wastes, and it hopes an ongoing environmental problem plaguing the palm oil business will make its business plan attractive to investors.
Right now the country disposes of 90 percent of the liquid produced during the distilling process. The byproducts could instead be converted into fuel and animal feed.
A biofuel startup with some stellar investors is making some big claims about its technology and production costs. But it will have to raise some serious money to prove itself.
One of the difficulties with investing in early-stage cleantech startups is that oftentimes the investors need to take a very long-term view of the companies they back: Many startups won’t mature into commercial firms for years. This is particularly difficult when technologies are risky — even speculative.
Looks like investors are still willing to fund pre-commercial next-gen biofuel startups. Joule — the startup behind the unusual hybrid solar-biofuel technology that launched back in 2009 — announced it has raised a third round of funding of $70 million, bringing its total funding to $110 million.
Yet another company using plants and biomass to replace petroleum products is looking to go public. On Monday morning, startup BioAmber announced that it has filed for an IPO that could raise up to $150 million.
Biofuels were envisioned to help to make the world a better place, but here comes a National Research Council report on Tuesday that casts doubt on the environmental and economic benefits of biofuels and the U.S.’s ability to meet its own production mandates.
Kleiner Perkins has another biofuel and biochemical company up its sleeve. On Tuesday, a Kleiner-backed startup called Renmatix, which makes sugar from biomass that can be turned into biofuel and biochemicals, came out of stealth during an event in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Yet another Khosla Ventures-backed biofuel company has filed to go public. On Friday cellulosic ethanol company Mascoma filed an S-1, indicating it plans to raise a maximum of $100 million in an IPO.
Turning renewable materials such as plants into useful chemicals seems a great idea, particularly when these green chemicals can replace compounds made from crude oil and natural gas. Genomatica, which filed for an initial public offering on Wednesday, certainly hopes investors will agree.
Freshly minted as a public company, biofuel producer KiOR reported Thursday that it brought in no revenues and widened its losses for the second quarter. It also faced questions about raising money for a processing plant when the economy is still struggling.
Biofuel and biochemical startup Verdezyne lands investment from British oil giant BP and Dutch biochemicals company DSM — yet another biotech startup teaming up with big boys to bring green fuels and chemicals to bigger scale.
KiOR, the biofuel startup that’s planning a $100 million IPO this year and seeking a $1 billion federal loan guarantee, has just landed a second sizable potential customer: Catchlight Energy, a JV between subsidiaries of oil giant Chevron and forest products giant Weyerhaeuser.
KiOR, the Khosla-backed startup that says it can make low-carbon bio-crude at rock-bottom prices, plans to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. But what does it plan to do with the money?
Trash king Waste Management has joined a $22 million investment in startup Agilyx, which has technology to turn plastic otherwise headed for the landfill into a synthetic crude oil. The garbage and recycling company has one of the more interesting investing strategies out there.
Khosla-backed startup KiOR has a new customer for the biocrude it hopes to start producing in 2012 — Hunt Refining Co. It’s an important step for a startup seeking $1 billion in federal loan guarantees. Hunt has agreed to buy an unspecified amount of product.
Khosla-backed bio-crude startup KiOR is seeking a $1 billion loan guarantee from the DOE. The company announced a term sheet Thursday, which may or may not lead to an award, but if secured, will be crucial to the company’s plans to scale up production.
Energy Secretary Steve Chu laid out near- to long-term research and deployment plans to meeting goals set by President Obama in his state of the union speech. Aside from solar, electric cars and energy efficiency measures, Chu also is bullish about nuclear power.
Biofuel startup Gevo has lowered its upcoming IPO to $13 to $15 per share. That’s about $100 million, or $89 million after fees, less than the $150 million it targeted in August, but close to what analysts have predicted.
Biofuel and biochemical startup LS9, which is using a genetically modified version of e.coli bacteria to make diesel, has closed a round of $30 million led by the investors at BlackRock, and also including the company’s existing investors Khosla Ventures, Flagship Ventures and Lightspeed Ventures.
The government has always played a big role by subsidizing our transportation fuels it make them cheap. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday said it’ll continue the tradition by helping out farmers and landowners to grow and ship energy crops.