Denmark’s Maersk has invested in WasteFuel, a California-based start-up centered around the conversion of agricultural and municipal waste into fuels, in order to “develop green bio-methanol production in the Americas and Asia.”
In an announcement Wednesday, the world’s largest container shipping firm explained its investment would enable WasteFuel to develop biorefineries and “produce sustainable fuels from unrecoverable waste that would otherwise degrade.”
The company’s investment is being made through its corporate venture arm, Maersk Growth. Its value was not disclosed in the announcement. Morten Bo Christiansen, Maersk’s head of decarbonization, is to join WasteFuel’s board as part of the deal.
“We know that sourcing an adequate amount of green fuel for our methanol fueled vessels will be very challenging, as it requires a significant production ramp up globally,” he said.
Collaboration and partnerships were “key to scaling the production and distribution of sustainable fuels,” Christiansen said.
In February it was announced that private aviation firm NetJets, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, had “made a significant investment” in WasteFuel.
In a statement at the time, NetJets said it had made a commitment to buy a minimum of 100 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel from WasteFuel across the next 10 years.
The idea of repurposing waste for other uses is not a new one. Back in 2014, for example, a “Bio-Bus” powered by sewage, food waste and other commercial liquid wastes was used to transport passengers between Bristol Airport and the city of Bath, in southwest England.
Elsewhere, Reading, a large town west of London, is home to a fleet of more than 58 bio-gas buses using biomethane from cattle slurry and food waste.
The U.S. Department of Energy has described wastes as representing “a significant and underutilized set of feedstocks for renewable fuel and product generation.”
The environmental footprint of shipping is significant. In 2019, international shipping — a crucial cog in the world’s economy — was responsible for approximately 2% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.
With major economies around the world attempting to cut emissions in order to meet net-zero targets, the shipping sector will need to find new ways of cutting the emissions of its operations.
Methanol appears to be crucial to Maersk’s plans going forward. Last month, the company said it had secured a supply of “green” e-methanol for what it described as “the world’s first container vessel operating on carbon neutral fuel.”
On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!
Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.
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Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”
November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).
It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.
Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”
May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.
“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.
The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)
Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)
Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.
The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.
To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.
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Marqeta celebrates its initial public offering at the Nasdaq on June 9, 2021.
Source: The Nasdaq
Marqeta shares tumbled more than 30% in extended trading on Monday after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter.
Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Loss per share: 6 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 5 cents expected
Revenue: $128 million vs. $128.1 million expected
While third-quarter results showed a slight disappointment on the top and bottom lines, Marqeta’s forecast for the current period was more concerning.
The payment processing firm said revenue in the fourth quarter will increase 10% to 12% from a year earlier. Analysts were looking for growth of more than 17%, according to LSEG.
Marqeta, which primarily functions as a card-issuing platform, attributed the guidance miss to “heightened scrutiny of the banking environment and specific customer program changes.” The company has been struggling for a while, and its stock is now down more than 80% from its peak in 2021, the year it went public. The stock was down 15% for the year prior to the report.
Total processing volume of $74 billion was up more than 30% from a year earlier. Net revenue and gross profit were up 18% and 24%, respectively.
Marqeta’s digital commerce business sells payment technology designed to detect potential fraud and ensure that money is properly routed. It also issues customized physical cards that look like a credit or debit card that can be used for point-of-sale purchases.
The company has been trying to break into the buy now, pay later business with a recently launched product called Marqeta Flex. The service brings BNPL from lenders such as Affirm or Klarna to any credit card wherever Mastercard and Visa are accepted.
“It’s an orchestration layer, but it’s tied to issuing and processing and disputes and chargebacks,” CEO Simon Khalaf told CNBC at Money2020 in Las Vegas last week. “So it is not actually a Wild West in BNPL. It is actually very well established. And there is a reason why a lot of people are jumping to it.”