List of Biomass Stocks
Biomass stocks are publicly traded companies whose business involves growing, collecting, or using biological matter (biomass) which can be used to make some other form of energy. Biomass includes human waste, municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, as well as industrial wastes such leftover wood from logging operations.
4energy Invest (ENINV.BR)
Andritz Group (ADRZF)
Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (RKDA)
BioAmber (BIOA)
Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. (BNET)
Bunge, Ltd. (BG)
Claymore/Clear Global Timber Index (CUT)
Darling Ingredients (DAR)
Deltic Timber Corp. (DEL)
EcoSynthetix, Inc. (ECO.TO)
Enviva Partners, LP (EVA)
IQ Global Agribusiness Small Cap (CROP)
iShares Global Timber & Forestry Index Fund (WOOD)
John Deere (DE)
Market Vectors® Environmental Services ETF (EVX)
Pinnacle Renewable Holdings Inc. (PL.TO)
Plum Creek...
The 10 Hottest Trends in Algae
Jim Lane Algae has been touted as the ultimate platform for fuels, chemicals, nutraceuticals, proteins even cancer therapies. There’s been a rate of progress that would impress any devotee of Moore’s Law and a series of wacky claims that would impress any devotee of P.T. Barnun. So, what are the real trends? We’ve traveled several years now since the “Summer of Algae” when it seemed like half the venture capitalists in life sciences were forming algae ventures, or thinking about them. Since then a cluster of research projects and proto-companies have been...
Biochar Investing
Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA BioChar, or using black carbon directly as a soil amendment holds the promise of both increasing agricultural yields and locking up carbon in the soil for centuries or millennia. Are there ways for stock market investors to benefit? The technology is simple, but the results are potentially quite profound. By pyrolyizing (heating in the absence of oxygen) biomass, and mixing the resulting char into the soil, it is possible to produce Energy, in the form of heat, electricity, and or liquid fuel Carbon sequestration More productive agricultural land. Key to producing both energy...
Aviation Biofuels: The Year of the Tree
by Jim Lane
When the world’s leaders for sustainable aviation fuels have a general meeting the week before the COP24 global climate sessions (this year in Poland), you can bet that the focus will be breaking the “You Can Have Two out of Three Conundrum” of aviation fuels. Which is to say: affordable, available at scale, and sustainable, pick any two of the three.
Fossil fuels are (usually) affordable and always available at scale. Sustainable jet fuels that are available at scale have generally not been affordable to date, and affordable sustainable fuels have been mostly explored at bench scale, so...
Algae On The Cusp
By Dr. Rebecca White, Vice President of Operations, iWi (Qualitas Health, Inc.) for Biofuels Digest
This Wednesday marks a major milestone in the history of the American algae industry: the first meeting in which the Biomass R&D Board Technical Advisory Committee officials will discuss algae as an agricultural crop. Up until now, the vast majority of governmental funding and support has gone to one particular application of algae: biofuels. The success of biofuels is extremely important. But so is the success of algae in other applications, such as protein, omega-3s and fish and animal feed, which all have the potential to...
Vagrants on the Earth: Implications of Topsoil Loss
“When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” -Genesis 4:12*
In 1970, an agronomist named Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He advocated hybridization of grains for higher crop yields, ushering in a new era of industrialized agriculture. The Nobel Committee recognized Borlaug’s work as instrumental in saving a billion people from starvation. Unfortunately, intensive farming that is part and parcel of the industry may be fostering an acceleration of another big problem. Unsolved it could leave humanity wandering like vagrants on the earth…with very empty bellies.
Topsoil...
Solid Play in Solid Waste
by Debra Fiakas CFA The last article “Advanced Disposal Services: Hauling a Heavy Load” on July 18th inspired a closer look at the solid waste management sector in which it competes. The solid waste industry is growing at a good pace between 1.6% and 2.0% per year, largely on population growth and the human penchant for consumption and waste. In the U.S. solid waste collection is still populated by many localized, family-owned businesses, despite the emergence of several large consolidators that now command as much as 55% of the revenue in waste handling and disposal. Fragmentation creates...
Investing In Wood Pellets, Part II – A Stock
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the emerging wood pellets industry and how this form of biomass was experiencing rapid growth as a coal substitute in power generation, mostly in Europe as a result of renewable energy and climate regulations. In the time since I wrote that article, I have been looking for ways to invest in the global wood pellets sector. Unfortunately, my search came up mostly empty (except for 1 stock discussed below). In response to my previous post, a reader pointed me to an article Joe Romm at Climate Progress had recently written...
Marrone Bio Innovations: Answers for Agricultural Angst
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
The world needs more food. At least more of the food produced in the world’s fields needs to end up in the mouths of humans and their animal friends. According to the United Nations, the world’s farmers produce enough food to feed everyone, yet over 800 million people routinely go hungry. This is due in part to the ancient and ongoing practice of selecting plants for high yield. The consequence is a selection of highly homogenous food crops. There are thousands of edible plants growing on Planet Earth, but only a dozen crops account for 75% of all human calories. Lack of...
Gevo’s Soil Amendment
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
In a series that began in March 2019, with the article titled “Vagants on the Earth,” we looked companies offering products that address the building problem of top soil degradation and loss. In the four articles that followed we explored forestation technology, environmentally-friendly timber harvesting, and modern soil fallowing programs. Unfortunately, we found few companies where investors could get involved quickly as minority investors. Another company has joined the movement to build topsoil. This one has publicly traded stock!
Last week Gevo Corporation (GEVO: Nasdaq) announced commencement of a trial for a soil treatment at its Luverne, Minnesota facility. The treatment developed by Locus Agriculture Solutions (Locus...
Biochar’s Likely Market Impacts
Biochar is still mostly a research and cottage industry, yet it has the potential to impact returns for a broad range of investors. Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA Biochar, or amending soil with biomass-derived carbon, shows great potential to improve the productivity of soils, as well as to increase the utilization of fertilizers by plants, while sequestering carbon to reduce the drivers of climate change. On August 10, I went to the 2009 North American Biochar Conference to look at the potential for investors. Before I went, I took a look at the publicly traded companies...
Biomass Takes Center Stage in Renewable Energy Industry
Green Energy Resources, Inc. (NYIL) announces it has agreed in principle to merge with Italiana Commissionaria Legnami (ICL) of Monza , Italy. ICL has offices in New York and Brazil. The terms of the merger have not been disclosed. ICL is the largest importer of woodfiber fuel in Italy. In 2003 ICL supplied approximately 80,000 tons of woodchips per month to the Italian market. The proposed merger will seek to capture the vertical market from procurement, to transportation, to power generation plants and would create one of the largest international biomass/ renewable energy companies in the world today....
Making Cash From Rice Trash
by Jim Lane
In our three-part series this month on utilizing waste resources, we’ll turn to rice straw, which is a major headache for Chinese and Indian emissions. Praj and Gevo are working hard on perfecting a technology to address this.
Specifically, in the past month, Gevo (GEVO) also executed an agreement with Praj to develop jet fuel and isooctane from rice straw and other feedstocks. Gruber noted that “we believe this second-generation technology combination has great potential to address India’s rice straw burning problem and related air pollution, while generating low-carbon hydrocarbons for jet fuel and gasoline. Praj is a leader...
Newsweek Special Report
"Experts generally agree that our current reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable. Already oil is near $50 per barrel, and the great millions of Chinese and Indians destined to take to the road in the next decades have not yet gotten behind the wheel." This week Newsweek has written several special reports about alternative energy in all its forms. All of these reports can be found at the following link.
Rentech’s Wood Saw Hits a Knot
by Debra Fiakas CFA Last week Rentech, Inc. (RTK: NYSE) revealed plans to idle its wood pellet production facility in Wawa, Ontario Canada. To operate efficiently the plant requires additional repairs and upgrades beyond the replacement of conveyors that was completed in Fall 2016. Beside the fact that the additional repairs were not included in the regular capital budget, Rentech management has apparently determined the expenditure is not economic given profits from Wawa. When Rentech reports financial results for the fourth quarter ending December 2016, shareholders will be treated to an asset impairment charge for the Wawa facility....
Solazyme: a 5-Minute Guide
Jim Lane Year founded: 2003 Annual Revenues: $38 billion (DuPont overall for 2011) $1.2 billon (Industrial Biosciences unit for 2011) Company description: Solazyme, Inc. is a renewable oil and bioproducts company that transforms a range of low-cost plant-based sugars into high-value oils. Headquartered in South San Francisco, Solazyme’s renewable products can replace or enhance oils derived from the world’s three existing sources – petroleum, plants and animal fats. Initially, Solazyme is focused on commercializing its products into three target markets: (1) fuels and chemicals, (2) nutrition and (3) skin and personal...
