Fulcrum Bioenergy

Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc. was a Pleasanton, California-based waste-to-fuel company that converted municipal solid waste into synthetic crude oil intended for upgrading into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Its flagship asset was the Sierra BioFuels Plant near Reno/Sparks, Nevada, designed to process 219,000 metric tons of garbage per year. The company described the site as the first commercial-scale waste-to-SAF plant in the United States, although the facility's direct output was syncrude, which was to be refined into SAF at a Marathon Petroleum refinery.

The Nevada plant began operating in 2022, with Fulcrum announcing start-up in May 2022 and its first syncrude shipment in December 2022, but operations were inconsistent; reporting cited clogging, nitric acid formation that corroded equipment, and sludge buildup. The plant stopped operating in mid-May 2024 and workers were laid off effective May 17, 2024, after leadership told staff the funding required to bring the facility back online was unavailable. Fulcrum also pursued a project in Gary, Indiana, and projects in the United Kingdom, neither of which reached construction before being placed on hold.

On September 9-10, 2024, Fulcrum BioEnergy and affiliates (Fulcrum Sierra BioFuels, Fulcrum Sierra Finance Company and Fulcrum Sierra Holdings) filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware (case 24-12008, Judge Thomas M. Horan), reporting liabilities of $100 million to $500 million against assets of $1 million to $10 million and more than 200 creditors totaling over $456 million. The case proceeded as a court-supervised sale: Switch Ltd. provided a $5 million DIP loan and acted as stalking horse bidder at $15 million, and the November 7, 2024 auction ran 57 rounds, ending with $55 million for the biorefinery assets (acquired by Switch) and $3 million for the feedstock processing facility (acquired by Refuse, Inc., a WM subsidiary). A plan of liquidation was confirmed April 14, 2025 and became effective May 5, 2025, with Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB as liquidation trustee.

Founding story

The company launched in Pleasanton, California, in 2007 to produce fuel from municipal solid waste.

Business model

Fulcrum planned to source municipal solid waste under feedstock agreements with waste haulers, convert it at company-owned biorefineries into synthetic crude oil, and sell that syncrude to refining partners that would upgrade it into sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. Project development was financed largely through tax-exempt environmental improvement revenue bonds and strategic corporate equity.

Sale of synthetic crude oil produced from municipal solid waste to refining offtakers, such as Marathon Petroleum, which was to convert it into sustainable aviation fuel.

Traction

The Nevada plant operated intermittently from May 2022, shipping its first synthetic crude in December 2022, before halting in mid-May 2024. The Indiana project never began construction. Reported equity raised exceeded $500 million, supplemented by roughly $290 million of Nevada environmental improvement revenue bonds and a $375 million Indiana Finance Authority bond issued in 2021.

Latest developments

The plan of liquidation was confirmed on April 14, 2025 and became effective May 5, 2025, establishing a liquidation trust administered by Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB. Asset dispositions approved in 2025 included a $900,000 catalyst sale to Johnson Matthey (January 15, 2025), a $10 million credit bid sale of parent assets to the prepetition agent (January 17, 2025) against a claim of at least $112,058,488, and a $325,000 sale of UK subsidiary shares to Northpointe Energy (April 24, 2025).