LanzaTech takes the lead in Hot 50, two weeks before the close of voting;  Novozymes, Amyris, DuPont, DSM, REG, BASF, POET, and Genomatica in the hunt. 

In Florida, early voting rankings were released today for 50 Hottest Companies in the Advanced Bioeconomy, representing roughly 70% of the overall subscriber vote expected. Subscriber voting ends Friday January 15 at 5pm ET. The Hot 50 rankings will be announced live at ABLC 2016 in Washington DC at 6pm on February 17, 2016.

Below, we’ve highlighted the top 150 companies in (to-date) subscriber voting. For those who have not yet voted, time to get that ballot in. More on the Hot 50 voting here.

Voting trends

The Digest noted some early voting trends.

1. These are early results — not finals — not yet including the 50% of votes from the invited international selectors, PhotoVotes, and the final 2 weeks of balloting in the Hot 50. While Photo Votes can follow the general trend of voting, the invited Selectors often have radically different ideas based on their in-depth industry knowledge — in many cases, behind the NDA wall.

2. Who’s slipped? Last year’s #2, GranBio, has dropped to #26 in the subscriber ballots so far, and last year’s #3, Algenol, has slipped to #10, while (last year’s #5) Solazyme is lagging back at #11 and (last year’s #7) POET-DSM has slipped back to #17, while Beta Renewables had eased back from #8 last year to #14.  Suprisingly, Abengoa is holding up at #15 despite a bankruptcy filing and plant shut-downs — some of that owing to early voting that predated the news.

3. Who’s surging? The biggest changes are Genomatica and BioAmber, who generally in the past competed in the old Hot 30 — but in the “big leagues” have been doing extremnely well at #9 and #12 respectively. Among others? Amyris has risen from #11 to #3, REG is up from #13 to #6, BASF has moved up from #15 to #7, and POET and DSM both moved up four notches even though POET-DSM took a step back.

4. Flight to brand leaders.  In early voting, bigger companies have surged this year. Novozymes, DSM, DuPont, BASF, POET, and REG in the top 10, Cargill, Coca-Cola, ADM, and Chemtex in the next 10 — and companies like Bayer, Dow AgroSciences, Corbion, Boeing, Clariant, Syngenta, Honeywell, Bunge, AkzoNobel, Shell and Evonik making appearances in the early voting.

5. We’ve not seen a major drop-off in cellulosic ethanol despite that sector’s delays — voters are still behind technologies such as POET-DSM, Enerkem, Beta Renewables, GranBio, Abengoa, and INEOS Bio.

6. Butanol is having a good early season — Gevo at 16, Green Biologics at 22 and Butamax at 23.

7. Scale increasingly matters. Only LanzaTech and Algenol in the top 20 don’t have a commercial-scale plant running, and LanzaTech is on the verge. Early stagers have generally migrated to the Hot 40.

8. All around the world. In the top 20, companies developing or owning projects in China, Brazil, Canada, India, Spain, the US, Italy, and Malaysia are on the list. Plus, global giants such as ADM, Cargill, BASF are in the elite.

9. Shock omissions. Where’s ethanol? Aside from POET, we see Green Plains, Aemetis and Pacific Ethanol way down the list from where their scale of operations and investments in advanced technology would be expected to place them. Where’s algae? We see Algenol and Solazyme both down substantially from last year. Sapphire Energy, Cellana, Heliae and BioProcess Algae are well below their historic voting levels— just to name a few.

10. Chemicals – the mainstay of the old Hot 30, are doing well. Amyris, DSM, Genomatica, BioAmber, Solazyme, Verdezyne, Green Biologics, and NatureWorks have all cracked the top 30 of the  “big ballot”.

11. Agriculture is doing well, especially with the bigger brands. Dow AgroSciences and Bayer CropSciences are making a first bid for the Hot 50, while POET Biomass is right up there. Genrally, companies like PacificAg and Genera will be expected to dominate in the Hot 35 Supply Chain companies — a ranking coming up early next year.

Early Leaders

1 LanzaTech

2 Novozymes

3 Amyris

4 DuPont Industrial Biosciences

5 DSM

6 Renewable Energy Group

7 BASF

8 POET

9 Genomatica

10 Algenol

11 Solazyme

12 BioAmber

13 Cargill

14 Beta Renewables / Chemtex

15 Abengoa Bioenergy

16 Gevo

17 POET-DSM

18 ADM

19 POET Biomass

20 Coca-Cola

21 Verdezyne

22 Green Biologics

23 Butamax

24 Enerkem

25 Boeing

26 GranBio

27 Joule Unlimited

28 American Process

29 Dow AgroSciences

30 NatureWorks

31 Bayer CropSciences

32 Clariant

33 Virent

34 Corbion

35 Avantium

36 Braskem

37 Elevance Renewable Sciences

38 Neste Oil

39 Renmatix

40 Syngenta

41 Dyadic

42 Evonik

43 Raizen

44 Sweetwater Energy

45 Reverdia

46 AkzoNobel

47 Shell

48 INEOS Bio

49 Bunge

50 Honeywell’s UOP

51 ICM

52 Iogen

53 BP Biofuels

54 Rivertop Renewables

55 Fulcrum BioEnergy

56 Audi

57 Ensyn

58 Myriant

59 Valero

60 ZeaChem

61 CoolPlanet Energy Systems

62 Praj Industries

63 Aemetis

64 Sapphire Energy

65 Inbicon

66 Waste Management

67 Deinove

68 Cosan

69 Liquid Light

70 NexSteppe

71 Pacific Ethanol

72 Zymergen

73 EdeniQ

74 John Deere

75 Evolva

76 Global Bioenergies

77 Cathay Pacific

78 Stora Enso Biomaterials

79 Ceres

80 UPM

81 United Airlines

82 Anellotech

83 Leaf Resources

84 Mitsubishi Chemical

85 Novvi

86 Intrexon

87 General Motors

88 Cellana

89 Fiberight

90 Solvay

91 Propel Fuels

92 Rennovia

93 Green Plains

94 Succinity

95 BioProcess Algae

96 Genera Energy

97 KLM

98 Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies

99 Chromatin

100 GF Biochemicals

101 Lygos

102 Axens IFP

103 Novamont

104 Mango Materials

105 Heliae

106 Bluefire Renewables

107 Oberon Fuels

108 Benefuel

109 Algaeventure Systems

110 Pacific Ag

111 Haldor Topsoe

112 xF Technologies

113 Byogy Renewables

114 Reliance Industries

115 ALS Bioenergy

116 American Science and Technology Corporation

117 METabolic EXplorer

118 Yulex

119 Holland & Knight

120 Blue Sun Biodiesel

121 Industrial Microbes

122 Louis Dreyfus

123 Direvo

124 Biosynthetic Technologies

125 Corinne Young, LLC

126 Stern Brothers

127 Vermeer

128 Arizona Chemical

129 Koch FHR

130 Micromidas

131 Comet Biorefining

132 BioBlend Renewable Resources

133 Newlight Technologies

134 FENC

135 Kilpatrick Townsend

136 Midori Renewables

137 Taurus Energy

138 Applied Research Associates (ARA)

139 EcoEngineers

140 GeoSynFuels

141 Tesoro

142 Emerging Fuels Technology

143 ThermoChem Recovery International

144 Blue Marble Biomaterials

145 Darling International

146 New Energy Farms

147 Biox

148 Case New Holland

149 Fluid Quip Process Technology

150 Harvest Power