Cool Planet: Biofuels Digest’s 2014 5-Minute Guide

Cool Planet is a technology company that is developing sustainable products to address three of the world’s largest markets: energy, food and water. Currently they are commercializing a technology to create drop-in green fuels and biochar in a way that can change the world for good.

The biochar products sequester carbon and deliver transformative benefits to industries as diverse as agriculture, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

The company says that “our technology allows us to build smaller, significantly less expensive facilities closer to biomass feedstock, so we can expand rapidly, achieve lower scale-up risk and continuously innovate and improve with each distributed facility.”

Rankings:

50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy: #16, 2013/14

Awards:

Cool Planet is a 2014 Transformative Technology finalist for “Transformative molecule (biobased material)” and “Transformative conversion technology (liquid)”.

Model:

Owner-operator, JV partner and technology licensor.

The Situation:

Cool Planet announced that it has closed on its targeted $100 million Series D financing. North Bridge Venture Partners and Concord Energy were the lead investors for the round. The round added investors from Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Mexico to a marquee existing investor base, including North Bridge Venture Partners, Shea Ventures, BP, Google Ventures, Energy Technology Ventures (GE, ConocoPhillips, NRG Energy), and the Constellation division of Exelon.

The news is a follow-up to the announcement last September that the company had raised $19.4M in the second close of a “D round” equity raise, after closing on more than $29.9M in June of 2013, bringing the total raised to more than $60 Million, including the remaining commitments from existing investors.

Past Milestones:

In 2013, Cool Planet Energy Systems CEO Howard Janzen said that the company will build three bio-refineries in Louisiana with a capital investment of $168 million. The project will consist of modular biomass-to-gasoline refineries in the Port of Alexandria, Natchitoches and a site to be determined. Cool Planet will create 72 new direct jobs, averaging $59,600 per year, plus benefits. Additionally, LED estimates the project will result in 422 new indirect jobs, for a total of 494 new jobs. The company estimates 750 construction jobs will also be created by the project.

In December 2013, Cool Planet broke ground on the company’s first commercial facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, dubbed Project Genesis. The facility is designed to produce 10 million gallons per year of high-octane, renewable gasoline blendstocks, as well as biochar, all made from sustainable wood residues.

The facility will be located at the Port of Alexandria, on the Red River Waterway in Central Louisiana. The site was chosen because of its excellent wood biomass availability, interstate and rail access, and direct barge access to more than nine refineries. The facility is expected to produce at least 24 direct jobs and bring at least $56 million in economic investment into the state. Estimates are that an additional 150 indirect jobs will result because of this facility, and 350 construction jobs will be utilized.

In November 2013, Cool Planet Energy Systems,as a member of the Bioenergy Alliance Network of the Rockies (BANR), was awarded a grant by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to develop the scientific underpinnings for using beetle-killed wood as a sustainable feedstock for distributed bio-refineries.

In October 2013, Cool Planet announced the launch of their biochar soil amendment product “Cool Terra” for commercial agricultural trials. Rick Wilson, Vice President of the Cool Planet Biochar Group, made the announcement at the 2013 US Biochar conference. It plans to continue expanding application opportunities with selected partners in the agricultural community leading to commercial product release in 2014.

In October 2014, Cool Planet Energy Systems and Acritaz Greentech announced that they have signed an agreement to explore the building of multiple commercial facilities in Malaysia.
The plan is to begin construction on the first plant in 2014.   Acritaz will work with Cool Planet to use biomass raw materials local to the region that include palm plantation waste products such as empty fruit bunches, wood, and bark waste to make renewable, cellulosic fuels for the Asian market.

In September 2013, Concord Energy signed an agreement with Cool Planet Energy Systems to establish a joint-venture in the Asia Pacific Region. The JV will develop commercial production facilities for the conversion of non-food biomass into biofuels and soil enhancing biochar. Concord Energy has also made a financial investment in the Cool Planet.

Future Milestones:

Cool Planet will use a portion of the equity raise to finalize engineering design for the company’s first commercial facility. The funding will also provide capital to construct Cool Planet’s first commercial plant, which will be located at the Port of Alexandria, Louisiana. The company expects the facility to be in operation before the end of 2014.

Construction will begin on the second bio-refinery at the Port of Natchitoches by the summer of 2015, with a completion date in the summer of 2016. The third site is scheduled to come online in late 2016 at a Louisiana site to be determined.

Cool Planet will utilize wood waste and forest byproducts to make gasoline at its initial commercial-scale facilities in Louisiana. Each bio-refinery will be capable of producing 10 million gallons of high-octane, low-vapor pressure gasoline for strategic distribution through existing market channels and for blending at Louisiana refineries.

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