A company falling into the abyss
By the end of 2011, the company had completed its $150 million IPO, and what have been described as “false data”, “overstated yields” and “unrealistic financial projections” are now, and permanently, in the public domain. The COO came and went. Top science people had resigned. Investors were showing signs of nervousness. The first commercial’s project cost had ballooned $90 million. Representations to the state of Mississippi would be later characterized by the state as “fraudulent.”
The root cause: the low yields and oxygen-replete product. Which go back to ineffective catalyst; the only ones working much at all are said to be ruinously expensive.Pleas to revise the technology ‘before it is too late’ were going unheard.
Truly, KiOR is beginning to slip over the precipice and down into the abyss. But some remain hopeful that KiOR can be saved, that a better science result will save the company. Differing voices express differing ideas on how to achieve that.
Could the catalyst finally work? Would it work in the design for the first commercial, which is well on the way to being finalized. KiOR may be failing as 2011 gave way to 2012, but perhaps the staff could catch a branch and stabilize before tumbling into the darkness.
Maybe, just maybe…
We’ll see how all those hopes worked out in the next part of our series, as KiOR readied to launch its first commercial unit.
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