November 6, 2012

Biofuels Digest Ranks Sweetwater as Year’s 57th Hottest Bioenergy Company and 37th Hottest Renewable Chemicals Company

Sweetwater Energy, Inc., a Rochester NY-based renewable sugar producer, was voted by Biofuels Digest readers as the year’s 57th hottest company in bioenergy out of 150 entrants, and the 37th hottest company in renewable chemicals and biobased materials out of 100.

The rankings, which recognize innovation and achievement in bioenergy development, are based 45 percent on votes from invited international selectors, 45 percent on votes from subscribers of Biofuels Digest and Biobased Digest, and 10 percent on votes via Twitter. More than 300,000 individual company ratings were logged by selectors, subscribers and Twitter voters, in total, in the 2012-13 Hot 30 and Hot 50 rankings.

Among the Hot 50, 37 were US-based companies and 13 were from other countries. 17 are active in cellulosic ethanol development (up from 15 last year), nine utilize algae, yeast or cyanobacteria in their microbial energy solutions (up from seven last year), and 14 are producing “drop-in” renewable biofuels such as biobutanol, renewable diesel, green gasoline and renewable jet fuel (down from 16).

Biofuels Digest is the world’s most widely read biofuels daily. The Miami, FL-based online magazine and email newsletter published more than 4,000 news stories on bioenergy in 2012, and serves 133,000+ newsletter, website readers and social media followers in every UN-recognized country.

Sweetwater Energy uses a unique technology to produce low-cost sugars from non-food plant materials. This sugar solution is sold to refineries, which use it to produce biofuels, biochemicals, and bioplastics. Unlike petroleum-based technologies, Sweetwater Energy’s process uses renewable plant materials that are not only grown domestically, but significantly reduce greenhouse gas.