Cellulosic ethanol investors: BP, Shell, Petrobras, Chevron, Valero, Marathon, Pfizer, GE, GM, DuPont, Weyerhaeuser, British Airways, Alitalia, Quantas
Investors in other biofuels: Exxon, Total:
British oil major BP Plc (BP.L) on Wednesday became the latest oil company to take a stake in ethanol production when it extended an agreement with Verenium Corp (VRNM.O) to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Highlands County in Florida. The 36 million gallons-per-year plant will cost $250 million to $300 million. uk.reuters.com
BP has a JV with DuPont to commercialize biobutanol, and is exploring other avenues in the sector, as well, such as producing algae with Martek Biosciences, jatropha with D1, cellulosic ethanol with QTeros, and ethanol with sugarcane with Brazilian-based Tropical BioEnergia SA greentechmedia.com
Two major partnerships have taken shape recently between global oil conglomerates and smaller cellulosic biofuel companies, including a $12 billion joint venture between Shell and Brazilian ethanol producer Cosan, and an $11 million deal between Petrobas and KL Energy Corporation to expand Brazilian operations. globalfundexchange.com
“There will be a need for all these fuels,” said Graeme Sweeney, executive vice president for future fuels and carbon dioxide at Royal Dutch Shell. He predicted that the 1 percent of the world’s transportation fuels that are biofuels today “could easily be 10 percent in the next decade or so.”...Chevron has formed a joint venture with Weyerhaeuser to develop biofuels from wood waste. nytimes.com
Amyris has a partnership with French oil giant Total; Chevron has invested in LS9 and Solazyme as well as in Codexis... ...Chevron, Pfizer, General Electric) are holding onto their Codexis stock gigaom.com
Mascoma Starts Up Cellulosic Ethanol Demo Plant...General Motors and Marathon Oil in its roster of investors greentechmedia.com
Valero Energy of San Antonio, operator of four corn-fed ethanol plants in Iowa, joined DuPont last week in moving toward the next-generation of biofuels with an announcement that it will invest in a wood-chip ethanol plant at Knross Township, Mich. blogs.desmoinesregister.com
Shell has already partnered with the cellulosic companies Codexis and Iogen renewableenergyworld.com
Alitalia has become the latest airline to sign a letter of intent with US bioenergy firm Solena to examine the possibility of building a plant that converts household waste into aviation biofuel...British Airways signed a similar deal with Solena last year, under which it agreed to purchase all of the biofuel produced by a proposed Solena plant in east London to use on part of its fleet from 2014. Qantas Airways is also reported to have entered a similar agreement with Solena. flightglobal.com
Exxon-Mobile, whose CEO Rex Tillerson famously said in 2006 that, "there's an enormous amount of uncertainty around this whole question [of global warming]," has made one biofuel investment --- a $300-$600M algae collaboration with Synthetic Genomics. Chevron invested in Codexis, while French major Total S.A. invested in biobutanol leader Gevo. greentechmedia.com
The database now tracks 110 advanced biofuels projects, and projects that advanced biofuels capacity will reach 718 million gallons in 2011, 1.522 billion by 2012, 2.685 billion by 2013, and 3.579 billion gallons by 2014. renewableenergyworld.com
Conclusion: A list of the biggest companies in the energy and chemicals industries, and companies like GE (with perhaps the world's best engineering talent) are serious about biofuels in general, and cellulosic ethanol specifically. |
