Biofuels

Jim Lane Delayed 2013 results includes going concern statement. Future Khosla financing contingent on milestones. Default looms as soon as April. Financing after August unclear. In Texas, KiOR (KIOR) announced a $347.5M net loss for 2013, and issued a “going concern” statement that focused on its ability to raise future capital to sustain operations and build its next plant. In a 10-K filing with the SEC made today, the company said that “Currently, we have ceased work on a series of optimization projects and upgrades at the Columbus facility and are bringing the facility to an idle state,” and...

Jim Lane IPOs are struggling, all across cleantech – and the biofuels IPO queue is long and tiring. Why Kiwano countries may be in your future. And, what is a Kiwano country, anyway? So, amidst all the legislative and policy hoopla last week for advanced biofuels, including winning funding for an energy title in the US Senate’s Farm Bill and the release of the US Bioeconomy strategy, Enerkem’s IPO skidded to a halt and was withdrawn. Sure, it was very early stage – their first commercial wasn’t complete, the company wasn’t producing much in the way of revenue,...

Jim Lane In Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gevo’s (NASD: GEVO) favor and overturned an earlier Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the interpretation of key patent claims. On April 11, 2013, the Delaware District Court (District Court) entered a final judgment of non-infringement in Gevo’s favor following the acknowledgment by Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC (Butamax) that Gevo does not infringe Butamax’s asserted patents under the District Court’s construction of a key claim term in Butamax’s Patent Nos. 7,851,188 and 7,993,889. At the time, Butamax appealed Gevo’s victory, and a US Court of Appeals in...

Jim Lane What’s up with the cellulosic biofuels leader? Good news, bad news? If you have ever spent any time reading up on ion thrusters a next-gen engine technology that NASA recently employed on the Dawn spacecraft you might chuckle when you think of the plight of poor KiOR (KIOR). The good news about ion thrusters is that they can ultimately achieve speeds of 200,000 miles per hour, ten times that of the Space Shuttle. The bad news is that the Dawn took four days to accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour. Yep, zero...

Jim Lane Businessman leaping photo via BigStock “The first cut is the deepest” goes the old saw no more so than in first commercial, first-of-kind advanced biofuels projects – especially when they are undertaken by newly-public companies under extraordinary scrutiny. In short, the KiOR (KIOR) story. And, as allegations fly, we look at the data on the ground and find that things are not always as they seem. Earlier this year, Phil New, the always interesting CEO of BP Biofuels, gave a rather extraordinary address in which...

Jim Lane Has Gevo whipped its problems, and whipped them good? When a problem comes along, you must whip it Before the cream sets out too long, you must whip it When something’s goin’ wrong, you must whip it Now whip it into shape Shape it up, get straight Go forward, move ahead Try to detect it, it’s not too late To whip it, whip it good.     Devo “Whip It” When last we took an in-depth look at Gevo, (NASD:GEVO) the company was beset by a swarm of motions, cross-motions and lawsuits in its long-running patent...

Jim Lane Though a panic-inducing analyst report circulates on the internet, the consensus among analysts continues to be bullish on the biobased isobutanol pioneer. With Gevo, Inc.’s stock (NASD:GEVO) in the toilet as of now, trading at $2.00 the company has a market cap of $79 million and $92 million in the bank. When any company much less one with a hot technology is trading at less than its cash-on-hand value, it’s both rare and a reason to reflect on the financial state of affairs. Especially since alarming reports such as David...

Jim Lane Camelina microcarpa, aka Littlepod false flax.   Photo by Jim Pisarowicz, National Park Service New renewable feedstock OKs. Good news, bad, neutral? In Washington, the US Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule qualifying biofuels produced from camelina oil as biomass-based diesel or advanced biofuel, as well as biofuels from energy cane which qualify as cellulosic biofuel. This final rule also qualifies renewable gasoline and renewable gasoline blendstock made from certain qualifying feedstocks as cellulosic biofuel. “This decision adds to the growing list of biodiesel...

Jim Lane Rewind to 2011 with a “best of” New Year’s story? Bah, humbug! Today, Biofuels Digest looks forward to the sunny possibilities of 2012 in bioenergy. As the sunset of 2011 gives way to the dawn of 2012, here at the Digest we resist the holiday temptation to look back over the challenges and highlights of the year gone by, and instead once again roll out our crystal ball as we list the Digest’s 10 Biofuels Predictions for 2012. Top 10 Biofuels Predictions for 2012 10. Advanced biofuels capacity surges to 1 billion gallons, globally. We...