In Florida, renewable fuels and chemicals developer Amyris took the #1 spot in the 2010-11 “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” rankings, published today in Biofuels Digest, the online daily bioenergy news service.

Solazyme (#2), POET (#3), LS9 (#4), Gevo (#5), DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol (#6), Novozymes (#7), Coskata (#8), Codexis (#9) and Sapphire Energy (#10) round out the top 10.

The rankings, which recognize innovation and achievement in bioenergy development, are based 50 percent on votes from a 75-member panel of international selectors, and 50 percent on votes from subscribers of Biofuels Digest and Renewable Chemicals Digest.

Ranked #11 through #20 are Virent, Mascoma, Ceres, Cobalt Technologies, Honeywell’s UOP, Enerkem, BP Biofuels, Genencor, Petrobars and Abengoa Bioenergy.

Notes on the votes

Among the Hot 50, 37 were US-based companies and 13 were from other countries. 15 are active in cellulosic ethanol development (down from 19 last year), five are developing algae-based energy solutions (down from seven last year), and 16 are producing “drop-in” renewable biofuels such as biobutanol, renewable diesel, green gasoline and renewable jet fuel (up from 15 last year). 13 are developing capabilities to produce renewable chemicals.

Strategic investors such as Waste Management, Chevron, and Monsanto appeared in the rankings for the first time, while Shell advanced this year and BP Biofuels reached the top 20. DuPont was an investor in two tiop-50 companies, DDCE and Butamax.

Overall, more than 1,000 companies were eligible in the rankings and 301 companies received votes. Amyris Biotechnologies ranked #1 in the international Selector poll, while Solazyme ranked #1 in the subscriber poll.

New companies in the list this year include:

Cargill (#36), Butamax (#38), Cosan (#40), Waste Management (#42), Dynamic Fuels (#44), KiOR (#47), Chevron (#48), and Monsanto (#49).

Major positive movers this year were: LS9 (up four places to #4), Gevo (up 8, to #5), Codexis (up 26, to #9), Virent (up 10, to #11), Cobalt Technologies (up 16, to #14), Enerkem (up 9, to #16), Genencor (up 8, to #18), Joule Unlimited (up 10, to #22), Rentech (up 13, to #25), Neste (up 11, to #29), Lanzatech (up 10, to #31), Origin Oil (up 9, to #33), Cargill (unranked, to #36), SG Biofuels (up 12, to #37), and Terrabon (up 8, to #39).

“The industry has spoken, and it appears that a successful IPO has put Amyris over the top after ranking #3 last year,” said Jim Lane, editor and publisher of Biofuels Digest. “Biobutanol companies were up sharply this year, and there was a strong trend towards microbial fermentation using e.coli, yeast and algae as a platform – accounting for four of the top 5 this year. But the message from the Hot 50 this year is diversity – the range of feedstocks, fuels and processing technologies is really striking. ”

The 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for 2010-11 are:

Last year’s rank (2009-10)

1. Amyris 3

2. Solazyme 1

3. POET 2

4. LS9 8

5. Gevo 13

6. DuPont Danisco 7

7. Novozymes 11

8. Coskata 6

9. Codexis 35

10. Sapphire Energy 5

11. Virent 21

12. Mascoma 10

13. Ceres 28

14. Cobalt Technologies 30

15. Honeywell’s UOP 12

16. Enerkem 25

17. BP Biofuels 4

18. Genencor 26

19. Petrobras 18

20. Abengoa Energy 15

21. Qteros 22

22. Joule Unlimited 32

23. Shell 27

24. Bluefire Renewables 19

25. Rentech 38

26. Algenol 24

27. ZeaChem 20

28. PetroAlgae 16

29. Neste 29

30. Synthetic Genomics 17

31. LanzaTech 41

32. Iogen 23

33. OriginOil 42

34. RangeFuels 14

35. ExxonMobil 29

36. Cargill NR

37. SG Biofuels 49

38. Butamax 38

39. Terrabon 47

40. Cosan NR

41. Verenium 9

42. Waste Management 42

43. IneosBio 36

44. Dynamic Fuels NR

45. Fulcrum Bioenergy 48

46. KL Energy 34

47. KiOR NR

48. Chevron NR

49. Monsanto NR

50. Inbicon 50

The award winners will officially be recognized at a reception at the Digest’s Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, in Washington DC, April 19-21, 2011.