The 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for 2010-11

December 7, 2010 |

In Florida, renewable fuels and chemicals developer Amyris took the #1 spot in the 2010-11 “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” rankings, published today in Biofuels Digest, the online daily bioenergy news service.

Solazyme (#2), POET (#3), LS9 (#4), Gevo (#5), DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol (#6), Novozymes (#7), Coskata (#8), Codexis (#9) and Sapphire Energy (#10) round out the top 10.

The rankings, which recognize innovation and achievement in bioenergy development, are based 50 percent on votes from a 75-member panel of international selectors, and 50 percent on votes from subscribers of Biofuels Digest and Renewable Chemicals Digest.

Ranked #11 through #20 are Virent, Mascoma, Ceres, Cobalt Technologies, Honeywell’s UOP, Enerkem, BP Biofuels, Genencor, Petrobars and Abengoa Bioenergy.

Notes on the votes

Among the Hot 50, 37 were US-based companies and 13 were from other countries. 15 are active in cellulosic ethanol development (down from 19 last year), five are developing algae-based energy solutions (down from seven last year), and 16 are producing “drop-in” renewable biofuels such as biobutanol, renewable diesel, green gasoline and renewable jet fuel (up from 15 last year). 13 are developing capabilities to produce renewable chemicals.

Strategic investors such as Waste Management, Chevron, and Monsanto appeared in the rankings for the first time, while Shell advanced this year and BP Biofuels reached the top 20. DuPont was an investor in two tiop-50 companies, DDCE and Butamax.

Overall, more than 1,000 companies were eligible in the rankings and 301 companies received votes. Amyris Biotechnologies ranked #1 in the international Selector poll, while Solazyme ranked #1 in the subscriber poll.

New companies in the list this year include:

Cargill (#36), Butamax (#38), Cosan (#40), Waste Management (#42), Dynamic Fuels (#44), KiOR (#47), Chevron (#48), and Monsanto (#49).

Major positive movers this year were: LS9 (up four places to #4), Gevo (up 8, to #5), Codexis (up 26, to #9), Virent (up 10, to #11), Cobalt Technologies (up 16, to #14), Enerkem (up 9, to #16), Genencor (up 8, to #18), Joule Unlimited (up 10, to #22), Rentech (up 13, to #25), Neste (up 11, to #29), Lanzatech (up 10, to #31), Origin Oil (up 9, to #33), Cargill (unranked, to #36), SG Biofuels (up 12, to #37), and Terrabon (up 8, to #39).

“The industry has spoken, and it appears that a successful IPO has put Amyris over the top after ranking #3 last year,” said Jim Lane, editor and publisher of Biofuels Digest. “Biobutanol companies were up sharply this year, and there was a strong trend towards microbial fermentation using e.coli, yeast and algae as a platform – accounting for four of the top 5 this year. But the message from the Hot 50 this year is diversity – the range of feedstocks, fuels and processing technologies is really striking. ”

The 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for 2010-11 are:

Last year’s rank (2009-10)

1.            Amyris                              3

2.            Solazyme                          1

3.           POET                                 2

4.            LS9                                    8

5.            Gevo                                 13

6.            DuPont Danisco            7

7.            Novozymes                       11

8.             Coskata                             6

9.             Codexis                            35

10.            Sapphire Energy            5

11.             Virent                              21

12.             Mascoma                        10

13.             Ceres                                28

14.             Cobalt Technologies     30

15.             Honeywell’s UOP           12

16.             Enerkem                          25

17.             BP Biofuels                        4

18.             Genencor                         26

19.             Petrobras                          18

20.             Abengoa Energy             15

21.             Qteros                                22

22.             Joule Unlimited              32

23.             Shell                                    27

24.             Bluefire Renewables        19

25.             Rentech                              38

26.             Algenol                                24

27.             ZeaChem                             20

28.             PetroAlgae                          16

29.             Neste                                    29

30.             Synthetic Genomics           17

31.             LanzaTech                            41

32.             Iogen                                    23

33.             OriginOil                             42

34.             RangeFuels                         14

35.             ExxonMobil                        29

36.             Cargill                                    NR

37.             SG Biofuels                          49

38.             Butamax                              38

39.             Terrabon                              47

40.             Cosan                                    NR

41.             Verenium                              9

42.             Waste Management            42

43.             IneosBio                                36

44.             Dynamic Fuels                     NR

45.             Fulcrum Bioenergy              48

46.             KL Energy                             34

47.            KiOR                                       NR

48.             Chevron                                 NR

49.             Monsanto                              NR

50.             Inbicon                                    50

The award winners will officially be recognized at a reception at the Digest’s Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, in Washington DC, April 19-21, 2011.

Category: Fuels

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