50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy: daily profiles begin, readers vote

The Hot 50 for 2009-10 will be released Tuesday, 12/1. Between now and then, you’ll see profiles of potential candidates in the Digest, and you’ll have a chance to vote for your favorites. Should a company be in the Hot 50, how highly ranked, and why (or why not)?

Reader response will count for 50 percent of a company’s overall score in the preparation of the rankings. Rate TMO Renewables in the one-minute Digest reader poll – make your voice count.

TMO Renewables

Based in: UK

2008-09 ranking: Unranked

Business: Licensor of a cellulosic microbe that produces up to 15 percent more ethanol than traditional fermentation technology, and reduces energy inputs in the fermentation and distillation process.

Model: Licensing, including a royalty on production of additional gallons of ethanol (”the TMO gallons”).

Investors include: Jupiter Asset Management, Noble Group, RAB Capital, Presnow Limited, Diverso Management, Libra Advisors

Past milestones:

1. Development of a secure, scalable application of technology, following the scientific breakthrough of discovering the microbe.

2. Commissioning of the company’s demonstration plant in Surrey, UK, used for customer demonstrations and feedstock testing.

3. Raising $18 million in 2009’s nefarious capital markets, funds that will be used to take TMO’s technology to the US.

Future milestones:

1. TMO is now in the commercialization phase, with “customer, customer, customer” as the focus. Numerous collaborations with ethanol project owners and developers will need to be converted into commercial customer relationships. Look for TMO to secure its first customer this year.

2. Look also for an independent report this year confirming that with use of TMO Renewables technology, starch gallons can qualify as advanced biofuels under the terms of the Renewable Fuel Standard based on direct GHG emissions.

3. Look for increased feedstock flexibility.

Metrics: TMO’s system costs $47-$60 million to implement, although payback comes within three years according to CEO Hamish Curran. The investment will provide up to 15 Mgy in additional fuel production at a traditional 100 Mgy ethanol plant.

Hamish Curran (CEO) quotable quotes: “Here in the UK, after what was known as the Gallagher Review, the government reversed the biofuels mandate on the basis of the Searchinger paper, which wasn’t a proof, it was a hypothesis, even if an interesting one. When properly analyzed, I think indirect land use change (ILUC) will go away.”

“When my chairman asked me why our pricing allowed customers to achieve a 30 percent internal rate of return, he rightly asked if we might possibly take a larger share of the pie. My background is in oil & gas, and I told him that when you go into the boardroom to compete for capital, the projects that are approved in this industry will need to be in the 25-30 percent bracket to win that competition, to make it interesting.”

More information: TMO Renewables website

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