Solazyme, LanzaTech, KiOR, Sapphire Energy and Gevo take top slots in The 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for 2013-14

Renewable oils developer Solazyme took the #1 spot in the 2013-14 “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” rankings.

It was the third consecutive year at the top for Solazyme, which also topped the Biofuels Digest polls in 2009-10.

LanzaTech (#2), KiOR (#3), Sapphire Energy (#4), Gevo (#5), Beta Renewables (#6), POET (#7), INEOS Bio (#8), GranBio (#9) and DSM (#10) rounded out the top 10.

Ranked #11 through #20 are DuPont Industrial Biosciences (#11), Novozymes (#12), Abengoa Bioenergy (#13), Enerkem (#14), Amyris (#15), CoolPlanet Energy Systems (#16), Joule Unlimited (#17), Neste Oil (#18), Virent (#19), and Ceres (#20)

The annual rankings, which recognize innovation and achievement in biobased chemicals and materials development, are based 50 percent on votes from an invited panel of distinguished international selectors, and 50 percent on votes from subscribers of Biofuels Digest and voters on Twitter, Facebook and photo voting via BiofuelsDigest.com. Overall, more than 100,000 individual company ratings were received from panelists and voters.

“This year, the voters went global in picking four companies out of the top 10 founded outside the United States,” said Biofuels Digest editor and publisher Jim Lane. “Feedstocks and intermediates dfid particularly well this year — algae, jatropha, renewable sugars. In addition, companies that did well have demonstrated financial strength as well as technological differentiation.

Among the Hot 50, 38 were US-based companies and 12 were from other countries. 20 are active in cellulosic biofuuels development (up from 17 last year), 12 utilize algae, advanced yeasts or cyanobacteria in their microbial energy solutions (up from nine last year), and 15 are producing “drop-in” renewable biofuels such as biobutanol, renewable diesel, green gasoline and renewable jet fuel (up from 14).

New companies in the list this year are: GranBio (#9), CoolPlanet (#16), Sweetwater Energy (#27), Propel Fuels (#29), American Process #37), BASF (#40), Midori Renewables (#47) and Cellana (#49).

The Miami, FL-based Biofuels Digest published more than 3,000 news stories on bioenergy in the past year, and serves more than 600,000 unique readers and followers via the web, newsletters and social media in every UN-recognized country.

The 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for 2013-14 are:

1. Solazyme
2. LanzaTech
3. KiOR
4. Sapphire Energy
5. Gevo
6. Beta Renewables
7. POET
8. INEOS Bio
9. GranBio
10. DSM

11. DuPont Industrial Biosciences
12. Novozymes
13. Abengoa Bioenergy
14. Enerkem
15. Amyris
16. CoolPlanet Energy Systems
17. Joule Unlimited
18. Neste Oil
19. Virent
20. Ceres

21. Renewable Energy Group
22. Butamax
23. Mascoma
24. Honeywell’s UOP
25. Algenol
26. BP Biofuels
27. Sweetwater Energy
28. Fulcrum BioEnergy
29. Propel Fuels
30. ZeaChem

31. Waste Management
32. LS9
33. Elevance Renewable Sciences
34. Renmatix
35. OPX Biotechnologies
36. EdeniQ
37. American Process
38. Boeing
39. Fiberight
40. BASF

41. Codexis
42. Valero
43. Cobalt Technologies
44. Cosan
45. SG Biofuels
46. Dyadic
47. Midori Renewables
48. Coskata
49. Cellana
50. Virdia (tie)
50. Iogen (tie)