TMO Renewables Ltd, a developer of a new process for converting biomass into fuel ethanol, has completed a round of financing totalling £11 million from institutional shareholders and private investors.
TMO says its fermentation process is capable of utilising all of the sugars, including complex longer-chain forms, derived from lignocellulosic (woody) biomass.
TMO has built one of the UK’s first cellulosic ethanol process demonstration units. This facility has been operational for just over a year.
The funds will be used as working capital, primarily to support the Company’s entry into the US market. This is the key geographic area of focus for TMO.
The company says its second-generation ethanol technology can be employed as a retro-fit to improve existing corn ethanol plant yields by 10% to 15%, or applied to new-build, ‘non-food’ biofuel facilities.
Existing shareholders such as Jupiter Asset Management, Noble Group and RAB Capital participated in the funding round, as well as new investors Presnow Limited, Diverso Management, and Libra Advisors.
Presnow has invested a total of £4 million in TMO and offers the Company significant knowledge of the ethanol and agrarian sectors in both the USA and Brazil.
Diverso, a cleantech private equity fund, contributed £2 million as part of this round. Diverso specialises in renewable and cleantech opportunities in China.
Hamish Curran, Chief Executive of TMO, commented: "There are significant opportunities in North America for TMO, and we are pleased that this investment will enable us to engage fully those clients for whom we have successfully trialled a wide range of feedstocks–from grasses and wheat straw, to newspaper, municipal waste and distillers’ grains, a by-product of the traditional corn ethanol process.
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