Pathway to Progress: Edeniq secures $16M in funding for cellulosic sugar expansion

January 22, 2015 |

edeniqThe Virtuosos of Visalia are at it again — last month, expansion to China. This month, accelerating PATHWAY with a hefty invest from the likes of I2BF, Koch/FHR and others.

From California comes the news this week that Edeniq has raised more than $16 million in equity. The equity investment was led by I2BF Global Ventures, an existing investor; Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Angeleno Group, Flint Hills Resources Renewables, The Westly Group, Cyrus Capital, and Nimes Capital also continued to support Edeniq.

The funding will support the roll-out of Edeniq’s PATHWAY Platform, which increases ethanol yield at existing plants by three to six percent through a more complete conversion of starch and cellulosic corn kernel fiber into ethanol.

Takes across the US corn ethanol fleet, that could add as much as 800 million gallons of ethanol output. The equivalent of adding 32 25 million-gallon capacity add-on plants.

That’s interesting. So, let’s delve into this a little deeper.

What it means

Bottom line, this signals that Edeniq is now very focused on commercial deployments, and particularly on it PATHWAY platform— taking advantage of a wave of interest from first-gen ethanol producers looking for bolt-on technologies that offer a lowest-cost entry into cellulosics.

“We’re hitting our stride,” CEO Brian Thome told The Digest. “We have great strategic partners. Their project goals are different, but in reality they all share a commitment to sustainable development, and relentless focus on the bottom line.”

Is the strategic imperative as urgent, say, in China as in Brazil, we asked. After all, in Brazil the feedstock is already aggregated (bagasse), and the first-gen sugarcane ethanol industry is a success story, we noted.

“Yes,” Thome said. “The needs and goals are well understood, from the companies to the governments and research partners in China. In their case, it’s need driven — the growth of their economy relative to their conventional energy reserves, whether it is chemicals or fuels, they see cellulosic making sense.”

How far does the financing take Edeniq?

“Potentially, through to cash flow positive,” Thome said.

Edeniq’s technology

Edeniq’s technologies efficiently break down biomass to liberate cellulosic sugars that can be converted into ethanol, chemicals, and other products.

ABLC-Edeniq

Edeniq owns and operates a fully integrated two ton per day pilot plant in Visalia, California, which is currently in operation converting cellulosic feedstock into low-cost cellulosic sugars. Key to the process is Edeniq’s patented technologies, including mechanical pretreatment of biomass with the Cellunator.

Edeniq’s Cellunator enables ethanol plants to mill corn and other plant materials into a well-mixed slurry of small, uniformly-sized feedstock that can be more easily converted into sugars needed to produce biofuels and other biomaterials.

Last summer, Edeniq announced that tests at its PATHWAY Validation Facility confirmed that Edeniq’s Cellunator and PATHWAY Platform technologies are releasing cellulosic sugars into the fermentation process, thereby increasing ethanol yield three to six percent.  The pilot facility is located at the company’s headquarters in Visalia, California.

The PATHWAY Platform, which converts starch and break down corn kernel fiber, is currently in commercial testing at the pilot facility, which is funded jointly by Flint Hills Resources Renewables, and Edeniq.

If you’re less familiar with I2BF

I2BF Global Ventures is an international clean tech VC firm, generally associated with its Russian roots. that manages four venture capital vehicles: I2BF Holdings I (a collection of managed accounts and investment vehicles), I2BF Venture Fund II, the Russia-Kazakhstan Nanotechnology Fund which I2BF co-manages with VTB Capital and late-stage venture fund I2BF-RNC Strategic Resources Fund.

In the sector, they’ve also invested in Solix, leading a $31M Series C investment round there in late 2012.

The mission of I2BF Global Ventures is to seek out innovative and competitive companies across the clean technology community, targeting sectors and technologies it believes can lead the path to a brighter future. Since the first portfolio company investment in 2006, I2BF Global Ventures has successfully completed 23 transactions.

Alexander Nevinskiy, who with this investment joins the Edeniq board, was a bio physics researcher at various institutes at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences before landing Econometrics and Finance degrees from the London School of Economics and joining I2BF in 2007.

Key partnerships in place

Edeniq and Usina Vale are currently constructing a 20 ton per day demonstration plant to produce cellulosic sugars from sugarcane bagasse, the fibrous by-product of sugarcane juice extraction. The plant is co-located with Usina Vale’s ethanol and sugar production suite in Sao Paulo State, Brazil.

In California, Edeniq announced a Joint Development Agreement with Global Bio-chem Technology Group Limited, to integrate their technologies in a commercial demonstration plant at Global Bio-chem’s facility in the Jilin Province of China. Construction has been initiated on the plant, with a target to produce 50,000 metric tons per year of sugars from corn stover.

The two companies not only intend to supply the cellulosic sugars to Global Bio-chem for utilization in its existing sugar-based chemical production facilities, but also plan to develop partnerships with other companies to enable the production of a broad array of biochemicals and biofuels from its sugars.

Global Biochem started construction of a Commercial Demonstration Plant with a capacity of 50,000 mt/yr cellulosic sugars from corn stover, which is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Reactions from the principals

“Edeniq has a proven track record with customers and is now poised to roll out new products and expand into new markets,” said Alexander Nevinskiy, Partner at I2BF. “I2BF believes Edeniq’s technologies are helping to solve the industry-wide shortage of low-cost, sustainable fuels and chemicals.”

“Edeniq is committed to delivering low capital, highly operable solutions to biofuel and biochemical producers,” said Brian Thome, President and CEO, Edeniq.  “The investments by these prestigious organizations allow Edeniq to accelerate the PATHWAY Platform expansion in the U.S. and continue to build valuable partnerships abroad.”

Edeniq is a leading provider of technology solutions for biofuel production, developing next generation cellulosic technologies. Edeniq uses combined mechanical and biological processes for maximum efficiency and lowest cost.

More on Edeniq

You can learn more about Edeniq via our 2015 5-Minute Guide.

 

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