US waste-to-fuel firm joins IPO glut

The recent spate of green business IPOs shows no signs of abating after biofuel specialist Changing World Technologies became the latest clean tech firm to file papers with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The US-based firm announced plans to raise $100m through an IPO on the NASDAQ or NYSE Arca, although it did not disclose the number of shares it plans to sell.

The company uses a proprietary thermal conversion process to turn agricultural, municipal, industrial and food processing waste into biodiesel and also generates organic fertilizer as a by product.

It currently boasts a production facility in Carthage capable of converting 78,000 tons of animal and food processing waste into four million to nine million gallons of biodiesel per year and now plans to use the money raised through the IPO to bolster its production capacity.

The company said in its filing that it is looking at building additional facilities close to sources of feedstock and has already entered into discussions with a number of animal food processors and municipal waste treatment facilities in North America and Europe.

The filing is the latest in a series of clean tech IPOs and comes just days after battery manufacturer A123 Systems announced plans for a $175m IPO. Analysts are predicting the trend is likely to continue as clean tech firms reach maturity and recognise the need to raise fresh funds to scale up their operations in the face of soaring demand for technologies such as wind turbines, green cars and solar panels.