Changing World Technologies, a maker of biodiesel and fertilizers, files for $100M IPO

Proving that there’s still life in the ailing IPO market — well, at least in the cleantech sector — Changing World Technologies, a West Hempstead, New York-based maker of biodiesel and organic fertilizers, has filed papers with the SEC to raise up to $100 million. It has not yet disclosed the number of shares it plans on selling or its ticker symbol, but says that it expects to trade on the NASDAQ or NYSE Arca.

CWT is backed by Apex Capital, ConAgra Foods and several other firms; WR Hambrecht will be its lead book-running manager for the share sale. It will use the proceeds for general purposes and to build new facilities close to feedstock sources in North America and Europe.

Each facility will be able to convert 500 – 2,000 tons of animal and food processing waste per day; the firm’s Carthage, Mo., plant currently produces 4 – 9 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

CWT uses a proprietary thermal conversion process (TCP), or waste-to-oil technology, to convert a variety of food processing, agricultural, municipal and industrial waste materials into biodiesel and other useful products, including specialty chemicals and fertilizers. TCP, which the company claims is more than 80 percent energy-efficient, uses extreme heat and pressure to break down waste and reconstitute it into different products.

The company, a big proponent of small, locally distributed power generation units, sells biodiesel to the industrial boiler market and fertilizers to farms in Carthage. Enertech Environmental, an Atlanta, Georgia-based waste conversion startup that makes biofuel from biosolids, took in $42 million a few months ago.

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