Waste Management Inc. (WM) announced a strategic investment in Agnion Energy Inc. to support the latter’s allothermal gasification technology. Agnion's technology complements Waste Management's advancement of thermo-chemical conversion technology platforms and could enhance its waste processing options.
Waste Management joins other investors in Agnion including, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Munich Venture Partners and Wellington Partners. Agnion's allothermal gasification technology converts solid biomass feedstock into a high hydrogen and carbon monoxide-rich synthetic gas with exceptionally high heating value.
The synthetic gas is ideally suited for combined heat and power applications and can be converted into liquids, hydrogen, and methanol di-methyl-ether and or substitute natural gas.
Agnion's Heatpipe-Reformer design provides a flexible, small-scale, on-site gasification technology solution for relatively low capital cost. Customers for this technology are users looking for solutions to their high heating and electricity demands that constitute schools, universities, warehouses, distribution centers, shopping malls, hotels and hospitals.
The investment also syncs in with Waste Management's other chemical conversion technology platforms including Enerkem, S4 Energy Solutions, Terrabon and Agilyx. In May 2009, Waste Management and InEnTec LLC announced the formation of S4 Energy Solutions LLC, a joint venture to process waste from commercial and industrial waste streams to produce a range of renewable energy and environmentally beneficial fuels and industrial products as well as to generate electricity.
Then in August 2009, the company invested in Terrabon LLC to generate renewable transportation fuels from organic waste via a unique MixAlco technology.
In 2010, the company invested in Enerkem and Harvest Power to expand its organics processing facilities across North America and to develop innovative anaerobic digestion technology to accelerate the decomposition of organic materials that may produce renewable energy. In March 2011, Waste Management invested in Agilyx to convert difficult-to-recycle waste plastic into high quality synthetic crude oil.
The agreement with Agnion will help take Waste Management a step forward toward meeting two of its sustainability goals – doubling its renewable energy production by 2020 and investing in emerging technologies for managing waste.
Houston, Texas-based Waste Management provides collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services to nearly 20 million residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. The company is also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the U.S.
Waste Management competes in niches with Casella Waste Systems Inc. (CWST), Republic Services Inc. (RSG) and privately held Safety-Kleen Inc. The shares of Waste Management currently retain a Zacks #3 Rank (short-term Hold recommendation).
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