In Germany, Lanxess will acquire the US-based speciality chemical maker Chemtura, one of the major global providers of high-quality flame retardant and lubricant additives, for $2.69B, a 18.9% premium to the stock’s current share price. The transaction will be financed by LANXESS mainly through senior and hybrid bonds, as well as from existing liquidity. The […]
They called it Mission Impossible. Create a means to biodegrade any plastic out there that needs to decompose in the environment after use. Find little microbes that can break the material into something that ordinary microbes found widely in the environment can use. After all, soil microbes would love to eat plastic if they could. […]
The most important technological advance in biodiesel in recent years has reached commercial-scale in Eastern Nebraska, with the startup of the Duonix Beatrice biodiesel plant, which is and the first commercial-scale application of Benefuel’s innovative ENSEL technology. ENSEL technology is capable of converting a range of lower cost feedstocks such as recycled cooking oil and […]
Recently, we held a popular webinar on Renewables and the Advanced Bioeconomy with NEXANT principal Ron Cascone, for which you can see the slides here. During the webinar, we received a number of excellent questions, some of which we did not have time to get to — all of which are worth looking at. Ron Cascone […]
Late last week, the extended courtship between Bayer and Monsanto, which saw the dowry offer raised four times by Bayer, resulted in a $127.50 per share all-cash offer for Monsanto, which Monsanto’s board accepted. A whopping $66 billion in all — one of the largest all-cash acquisitions, ever. Reactions to the deal fall into three […]
In New York, jetBlue announced a 10-year, 330 million gallon renewable jet fuel purchase agreement with SG Preston. This marks one of the largest renewable jet fuel purchase agreements in aviation history, and the largest, long-term, binding commitment by any airline globally for HEFA (hydro-processed esters and fatty acids) renewable jet fuel. The first deliveries […]
Our story so far In 2011, KiOR raised $150 million in its June IPO, claiming that it was generating yields of 67 gallons per ton in its Demo unit operations. But it was miles short of that. In our previous installments, we have charted how KiOR moved from a promising early-stage technology to a public […]
There’s good news on the LanzaJet front. For the first time ever, LanzaTech has produced 1,500 gallons of jet fuel, derived from waste industrial gases from steel mills, via a fermentation process. The fuel has passed all its initial performance tests with flying colors. The jet fuel is the result of a partnership between Virgin […]
In Pennsylvania, Bill Gates is leading the latest investment round into the pioneering cellulosic sugars producer Renmatix as energy giant Total joins in with second investment and a 1 million ton per year license. Gates is the chairman of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition— along with Zuckerberg, Branson, Bezos, Steyer, Khosla, Doerr, and 20 others who […]
Edeniq is torn between two lovers: its current ownership group, which shuffled together a financing this week; and Aemetis, which is supposed to be acquiring Edeniq this year for $23 million. How Edeniq landed in this situation, we’ll endeavor to explain. And we’ll revisit our long-held belief that Edeniq’s tech is, in fact, a Billion […]
