Enerkem's mad scientist laboratory
Waste-to-biofuels company Enerkem, Inc., has announced a CDN $53.8 million roud of financing from its institutional investors and garbage hauling company Waste Management in a marriage that makes all kinds of sense.
Montreal-based Enerkem’s technology turns waste materials into ethanol and will help Waste Management “extract more value from the materials we manage,” according to Waste Company’s Managing Director of Organic Growth Tim Cesarek.Enerkem, which received $50 million in funding from the U.S. Energy Department in December, takes waste materials and gasifies them into a a product known as “syngas.”
The syngas is cleaned to remove impurities and then treated to produce methanol, ethanol and plastics.
The company is growing rapidly and plans to use its latest financing round to fund construction of its second waste-to-biofuels plant in partnership with the city of Edmonton. The company takes waste from the city to fuel it plant.
Enerkem also has a deal with the Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority to construct a plant in Pontotoc, Miss.
The latest round of financing comes from existing investors Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures and BDR Capital as well as new investors Waste Management and Cycle Capital.
Morgan Stanley acted as Enerkem’s agent for the deal.
Enerkem Chief Executive Officer Vincent Chornet said the deal shows that his company is a market leader:
This financing round validates Enerkem’s business and advances our path towards leadership in the waste and advanced fuels markets.
As Green Inc. notes this morning, Waste Management’s interest in Enerkem is a sign that conventional waste hauling businesses are interested in what biofuel technologies can do for them.