The 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for 2010-11

MIAMI, Dec. 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Renewable fuels and chemicals developer Amyris took the #1 spot in the 2010-11 "50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy" rankings, published today in Biofuels Digest, the online daily bioenergy news service.

Solazyme (#2), POET (#3), LS9 (#4), Gevo (#5), DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol (#6), Novozymes (#7), Coskata (#8), Codexis (#9) and Sapphire Energy (#10) round out the top 10. Ranked #11 through #20 are Virent, Mascoma, Ceres, Cobalt Technologies, Honeywell's UOP, Enerkem, BP Biofuels, Genencor, Petrobars and Abengoa Bioenergy.

The rankings, which recognize innovation and achievement in bioenergy development, are based 50 percent on votes from a 75-member panel of international selectors, and 50 percent on votes from subscribers of Biofuels Digest and Renewable Chemicals Digest. Overall, more than 1,000 companies were eligible in the rankings and 301 companies received votes. Amyris Biotechnologies ranked #1 in the international Selector poll, while Solazyme ranked #1 in the subscriber poll.

Among the Hot 50, 37 were US-based companies and 13 were from other countries. Fifteen are active in cellulosic ethanol development (down from 19 last year), five are developing algae-based energy solutions (down from seven last year), and 16 are producing "drop-in" renewable biofuels such as biobutanol, renewable diesel, green gasoline and renewable jet fuel (up from 15 last year). Thirteen are developing capabilities to produce renewable chemicals.

Strategic investors such as Waste Management, Chevron, and Monsanto appeared in the rankings for the first time, while Shell advanced this year and BP Biofuels reached the top 20. DuPont was an investor in two top-50 companies, DDCE and Butamax.

New companies in the list this year include: Cargill (#36), Butamax (#38), Cosan (#40), Waste Management (#42), Dynamic Fuels (#44), KiOR (#47), Chevron (#48), and Monsanto (#49).

The 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for 2010-11 are:

1. Amyris                    
2. Solazyme              
3. POET                    
4. LS9                    
5. Gevo                    
6. DuPont Danisco      
7. Novozymes              
8. Coskata              
9. Codexis              
10. Sapphire Energy      
11. Virent                    
12. Mascoma              
13. Ceres              
14. Cobalt Technologies      
15. Honeywell's UOP
16. Enerkem              
17. BP Biofuels              
18. Genencor      
19. Petrobras      
20. Abengoa Energy
21. Qteros              
22. Joule Unlimited      
23. Shell              
24. Bluefire Renewables      
25. Rentech      
26. Algenol              
27. ZeaChem      
28. PetroAlgae      
29. Neste      
30. Synthetic Genomics
31. LanzaTech
32. Iogen              
33. OriginOIl      
34. RangeFuels      
35. ExxonMobil      
36. Cargill              
37. SG Biofuels
38. Butamax      
39. Terrabon      
40. Cosan              
41. Verenium      
42. Waste Management
43. IneosBio      
44. Dynamic Fuels      
45. Fulcrum Bioenergy
46. KL Energy      
47. KiOR              
48. Chevron      
49. Monsanto      
50. Inbicon              

Biofuels Digest is the world's most widely read biofuels daily. The Miami, FL-based free online magazine and email newsletter has published more than 3,000 news stories on bioenergy in 2010, and serves 65,000+ newsletter and website readers in every UN-recognized country.

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SOURCE Biofuels Digest