Diversa and Celunol hook up
Enzyme developer Diversa is acquiring privately held Celunol, a provider of cellulosic ethanol technology, for $154.7 million (U.S.) in stock.
“The combined company will be the first within the cellulosic ethanol industry to possess integrated end-to-end capabilities in pre-treatment, novel enzyme development, fermentation, engineering, and project development,” according to a company press release. “It will seek to build a global enterprise as a leading producer of cellulosic ethanol and as a strategic partner in bio-refineries around the world.”
It should be noted that Celunol, which counts Vinod Khosla as a major investor, has purchased pre-treatment and conversion equipment from Brampton-based SunOpta for use in its Jennings, Louisiana, facility. This facility, to begin operating this summer, will be the first commercial cellulosic ethanol production plant in the United States and will use sugarcane bagasse and wood as its feedstock.
Like we’ve begun to see in the solar market, this merger indicates that the biofuels sector is ripe for consolidation as smaller companies look for dance partners in an attempt to bulk up and attract investment. Look for companies such as Dyadic, SunOpta and Genencor to make similar moves.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 am
sounds like a great investment