Top 10 Bioeconomy Markets and Predictions for 2019

4. Fracking the sewers — The wood basket

There’s so much heat around renewable diesel and jet right now, it’s a wonder the feedstocks don’t spontaneously combust. By The Digest’s estimates, there’s been close to two billion dollars in investments in renewable diesel lately. And the capacity just keeps growing. Between World Energy, Zymergen, Phillips 66 and REG, Diamond Green Diesel, Fulcrum, Red Rock, Raj Renewables, Dynamic Fuels, and more, it’s really happening….More money going into renewable diesel than big timers Google or Tesla. Yep, that’s right. Go ahead and pinch yourself.

Neste’s investment in Singapore is the cherry on top. A very big $1.58 billion cherry on top. We aren’t talking about money going into R&D either…this is actual money to market. Money to make it happen. Renewable diesel is past the R&D stage, much like a 12-year-old is past the Barbie or Transformers stage…well, some are.

So that’s the good news. The big question is, where is the feedstock going to come from? There’s only so much grease out there. They’re going to be fracking the sewers next. Yes, there’s MSW, but the projects are smaller, and will take longer to deploy.

We think the big volumes lie in sustainable wood residues — sawmill leftovers, tops and branches, needles, forest thinnings, and ultimately in forest resources that are just as sustainable now as they were in the heyday of the newsprint industry — all those trees that supported newspapers are still out there, in search of new applications.

Which puta a premium on technologies that can turn wood into either fuels, chemicals or usable intermediates such as biocrudes or renewable sugars. Could be boom times for the likes of Ensyn, Renmatix or EnerSysNet.