Denver Business Journal
Gevo Inc. filed Thursday for an initial public offering, which proposed to raise as much as $150 million.
The filing by the Englewood company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t contain the proposed share price, or how many shares will be offered.
UBS Investment Bank and Goldman, Sachs & Co. will act as joint bookrunning managers, and Piper Jaffray will be co-manager for the offering.
Founded in June 2005, Gevo is a chemical and biofuel company that intends to provide an alternative to petroleum-based products. The company detailed in its filing how it intends to produce and sell isobutanol, which then can be used as a specialty chemical or as a fuel. Gevo noted that it intends to sell isobutanol “as a building block in the production of renewable jet fuel.”
Gevo — which hopes to secure a NASDAQ listing as GEVO — said it intends to retrofit existing ethanol production facilities to produce isobutanol. The company this month signed a deal to buy an ethanol production facility in Minnesota and begin commercial production in the first half of 2012.
Gevo said it intends to be producing and selling more than 500 million gallons of isobutanol in 2014.
Patrick Gruber, 50, the CEO, has been with the company since 2007. He previously was president and CEO of Outlast Technologies Inc.
Gevo reported a net loss of $19.9 million in 2009 on revenue of $660,000.
Friday, 13 August 2010
AK-1000 tidal energy turbine could be the world's largest
Posted on Aug 12, 10 09:08 AM PDT
What you see on the right could very well be the largest tidal energy turbine in the world, and despite that claim to fame, its developer has described it as "simple and robust". According to Atlantis Resources, their AK-1000 was specially designed to survive in a harsh marine environment. Featuring a couple of sets of blades that will harness ebb and flood tides, the AK-1000 will move slowly underwater, and will in no way pose a threat to sea life. After all, it isn't going to chop up any fish with the turbines turning at six to eight revolutions per minute. Expect to see the AK-1000 make a splash (pun not intended) worldwide in due time as it helps generate electricity the green and renewable way.
UK government urged to evaluate biochar potential with trial schemes
First official report says burying charcoal in the soil has potential to cut greenhouse gases but scientific uncertainties remain
Jane Dudman guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 August 2010 11.33 BST
The idea of burying charcoal produced from microwaved wood to tackle global warming is still beset with scientific uncertainties, says the UK government's first report on "biochar".
The warning comes as a separate US study published this week said that as much as 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions could be offset by biochar.
Biochar involves burying cooked charcoal so that the carbon dioxide absorbed during the tree's growth remains safely locked away for thousands of years. The technique could remove billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year. But it has divided environmentalists, with backing from Gaia theorist James Lovelock and Nasa scientist James Hansen, but opposition from critics who say there is not enough to land carry out biochar on a large scale.
The report, commissioned by the government, looks at the stability and potential benefits of biochar in soil, as well as at the risks, including the danger of contaminants getting into soil. In addition to economic and logistical challenges, the report noted there are many scientific uncertainties about the role biochar might play. It is not clear how long the carbon would stay trapped in the soil or whether it enhances the quality of the soil as supporters claim, said Saran Sohi, leader of the University of Edinburgh's UK Biochar research centre and one of the report's authors.
However, the report concludes "biochar has a high carbon abatement efficiency" and calls for more pilot schemes that could potentially "advance rapidly the science, engineering, regulation and socioeconomic evaluation of biochar systems in the UK context".
The US study, Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change, paints a more positive picture. Biochar could offset 1.8bn tonnes of carbon emissions annually in its most successful scenario, it said, without endangering food security, habitat or soil conservation.
"These calculations show that biochar can play a significant role in the solution for the planet's climate change challenge," said the study's co-author Jim Amonette, a soil chemist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Biochar offers one of the few ways we can create power while decreasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. And it improves food production in the world's poorest regions by increasing soil fertility. It's an amazing tool."
Separately, biochar experts said last week that global sustainability efforts are being hampered by an emphasis on English language research.
At a seminar in Tokyo, Professor Shinogi Yoshiyuki from Kyushu university, said researchers into sustainable technologies around the world needed to share information.
"This is a global issue and we need to create a global network [of information]," he commented. Yoshiyuki is vice-president of the Japan Biochar Association, which was set up last year to highlight the results of 30 years' research into biochar technology in Japan.
Sohi, who was at the seminar along with sustainability experts from the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change, said his team's visit to Japan was "a real opportunity to collaborate and link up research".
He acknowledged that his report was based largely on English-language biochar research, but said there has been a willingness in both Japan and the UK to collaborate in researching the technology further.
• Jane Dudman's travel expenses in Japan were paid for by the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations. They had no say in the content of this article.
Jane Dudman guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 August 2010 11.33 BST
The idea of burying charcoal produced from microwaved wood to tackle global warming is still beset with scientific uncertainties, says the UK government's first report on "biochar".
The warning comes as a separate US study published this week said that as much as 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions could be offset by biochar.
Biochar involves burying cooked charcoal so that the carbon dioxide absorbed during the tree's growth remains safely locked away for thousands of years. The technique could remove billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year. But it has divided environmentalists, with backing from Gaia theorist James Lovelock and Nasa scientist James Hansen, but opposition from critics who say there is not enough to land carry out biochar on a large scale.
The report, commissioned by the government, looks at the stability and potential benefits of biochar in soil, as well as at the risks, including the danger of contaminants getting into soil. In addition to economic and logistical challenges, the report noted there are many scientific uncertainties about the role biochar might play. It is not clear how long the carbon would stay trapped in the soil or whether it enhances the quality of the soil as supporters claim, said Saran Sohi, leader of the University of Edinburgh's UK Biochar research centre and one of the report's authors.
However, the report concludes "biochar has a high carbon abatement efficiency" and calls for more pilot schemes that could potentially "advance rapidly the science, engineering, regulation and socioeconomic evaluation of biochar systems in the UK context".
The US study, Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change, paints a more positive picture. Biochar could offset 1.8bn tonnes of carbon emissions annually in its most successful scenario, it said, without endangering food security, habitat or soil conservation.
"These calculations show that biochar can play a significant role in the solution for the planet's climate change challenge," said the study's co-author Jim Amonette, a soil chemist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Biochar offers one of the few ways we can create power while decreasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. And it improves food production in the world's poorest regions by increasing soil fertility. It's an amazing tool."
Separately, biochar experts said last week that global sustainability efforts are being hampered by an emphasis on English language research.
At a seminar in Tokyo, Professor Shinogi Yoshiyuki from Kyushu university, said researchers into sustainable technologies around the world needed to share information.
"This is a global issue and we need to create a global network [of information]," he commented. Yoshiyuki is vice-president of the Japan Biochar Association, which was set up last year to highlight the results of 30 years' research into biochar technology in Japan.
Sohi, who was at the seminar along with sustainability experts from the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change, said his team's visit to Japan was "a real opportunity to collaborate and link up research".
He acknowledged that his report was based largely on English-language biochar research, but said there has been a willingness in both Japan and the UK to collaborate in researching the technology further.
• Jane Dudman's travel expenses in Japan were paid for by the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations. They had no say in the content of this article.
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