SK Innovation’s $20 million equity investment in Fulcrum BioEnergy completed

A $20 million equity investment in Fulcrum BioEnergy Inc. by SK Innovation, the energy arm of South Korea’s SK Group, has been completed, Fulcrum announced July 12.

This is the second investment that SK Group has made in Fulcrum, following its participation in a $50 million equity round in December by SK Inc.

Fulcrum and SK Innovation will work together to enter into an exclusive licensing agreement, providing the opportunity to explore the possibilities of bringing Fulcrum’s patented and proprietary waste-to-fuel process to South Korea and select countries in Asia.

“This investment signals another strong vote of confidence in Fulcrum’s proprietary waste-to-fuels process following the recent operational achievement of producing syngas from landfill waste at our Sierra BioFuels Plant,” said Eric Pryor, Fulcrum’s president and CEO. “The team at SK Innovation has been at the forefront of shepherding South Korea into a green-energy future. We look forward to our continued partnership as we explore the many possibilities ahead of us in Asia.”

This expanded partnership and investment comes on the heels of the company completing the commissioning and initial operations of its inaugural biorefinery, the Sierra BioFuels Plant, located east of Reno, Nevada.

In May, the company demonstrated its ability to transform landfill-waste feedstock into a syngas, laying the groundwork for Fulcrum to move on to the final step in its waste-to-fuels process—converting the syngas into liquid fuel.

Beyond Sierra, Fulcrum has also announced plans for additional plants as it seeks to scale up its production and address critical and urgent environmental issues—the reduction of carbon emissions from the aviation industry, of garbage sent to landfills, and of the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

The company says it is advancing on its large commercial-growth program of net-zero carbon waste-to-fuels plants across North America with a planned production capacity of approximately 400 million gallons per year.

As a privately held company, Fulcrum has aligned itself and entered into strategic relationships with industry leaders in the waste, aviation and energy sectors to further strengthen and accelerate the company’s patented and proprietary approach to commercially producing large volumes of renewable fuel from landfill waste.

SK Innovation, which contributes to South Korea’s energy security and economic development, operates the largest refinery as well as petrochemical, e-mobility battery and information electronic materials businesses in South Korea.