Earth Day 2020: 4 Green Shoots to Celebrate amongst the Devastation

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As I write, the May contract for West Texas Intermediate is selling for -$40.21 a barrel, or a negative cost of $240 per tonne. Let’s put that in context, you can throw unmixed useless garbage into a US-based landfill for an average price of around $75 a tonne.

Literally, you can make money by buying crude oil, and shoving it back into the ground.

Yet, good things happen in terrible seasons, and there are good things to celebrate, and it would be wrong to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day without seeing the green shoots amongst the devastation.

4 Green Shoots

ClearFlame Engine Technologies closes $3M Series A to commercialize clean combustion engine

In Illinois, ClearFlame Engine Technologies, the developer of an innovative clean combustion engine technology, closed a $3 million initial financing. Clean Energy Ventures led the financing with participation from several other investors. ClearFlame Engine Technologies has developed technology that replaces high-carbon, petroleum based fuels with 100% low-carbon, renewable fuels to reduce emissions and overall engine costs while retaining the same levels of high torque, fuel efficiency and durability benefits currently associated with diesel engines.

The funding allows ClearFlame to accelerate demonstrations of its breakthrough engine technology, which offers the same performance as a diesel engine with up to 90 percent lower CO 2 emissions, pursue instrumental partnerships and expedite commercialization.

In Sweden, EnginZyme closed a Series A investment of €6.4 million led by Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm based in Paris, London and Milan, bringing the company’s total funding to over €10 million since 2014. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of EnginZyme’s technology platform and take its first internal production process to pilot.

EnginZyme seeks to solve one of the fundamental problems of our time: How to produce sustainable alternatives to plastics, nylons, rubbers, and the tons of other synthetics that are used on a daily basis, without compromising on cost-effectiveness.

Crop Enhancement closes $8M Series B to Help Growers Protect Crops With Safe Coatings

In California, Crop Enhancement has closed its $8M Series B financing round led by Spruce Capital Partners/MLS. Joining Spruce are existing investors 1955 Capital (managed by Andrew Chung), Phoenix Venture Partners, Cavallo Ventures, and new investors Davinia Investments Ltd. and Alexandria Ventures.

The funding will be used to support strategic partnership development with agrochemical companies and regional distributors, broaden field trial targets in high-value fruit and vegetable segments, and advance regulatory efforts in the United States, European Union, Brazil, and Central America.

In Washington state, the Port of Seattle Commission approved a contract to enable the Port to reach its 2030 goal to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent, almost a decade early. This long-sought major milestone, voted on at the Commission meeting on April 14, 2020 results from an authorization for a 10-year supply contract with U.S. Gain for renewable natural gas. The $23 million contract allows the Port to purchase enough fuel to heat 55 percent of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) terminal and to power 100 percent of its bus fleet to reach its 50 percent port-wide carbon reduction goal. SEA will be the first airport in the country to utilize RNG for heating. READ MORE