OC master developer and real estate investor Bill Shopoff says he’s been talking about the dangers of climate change for decades, and he’s leading a biofuel company to do something about it.
Laguna Beach resident Shopoff is chairman of Irvine-based Vertimass LLC, which is in the low-carbon fuel business, joining the push to reduce the amount of harmful greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The company in January completed a Series B funding round for $8 million, with money from a small VC fund, a significant number of high-net-worth individuals and UGI Corp. of Pennsylvania. The company’s funding raised to date totals about $11 million.
Shopoff expects to raise an additional $25 million to $50 million in the company’s next round, to be completed around the end of this year.
The goal for the next round is a company valuation “north of $1 billion,” Shopoff tells the Business Journal.
Energy Security
In scientific terms, Vertimass’ technology sustainably produces vital fuels and chemicals from methanol, ethanol, and other renewable alcohols. The high yields can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to getting those products from petroleum, according to the company.
Shopoff says his company’s process will also contribute to “energy security,” which has become even more critical due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and turbulence in world oil markets.
In addition to helping lower carbon footprints, jet, diesel, and gasoline fuels and chemicals derived from renewable alcohols can improve strategic security, rural economies and international competitiveness.
Vertimass in 2014 was awarded a worldwide exclusive license for catalyst technology invented at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the conversion of ethanol into jet fuel, diesel fuel, and gasoline blend stocks that are compatible with the current transportation fuel infrastructure. Shopoff says his company has improved on the original technology.
Shopoff says the company “is basically taking CO2 out of the atmosphere, turning it into an alcohol and then manipulating that alcohol and turning it into a low-carbon fuel.”
“It is commercially feasible. We expect to be in production some time in 2023,” starting primarily with corn ethanol.
“We’re working to get our jet fuel and our gasoline certified, hopefully before the end of this year.”
Shopoff says Vertimass is a “small, lean operation” that currently counts five employees.
“Generally we’re going to license tech to other people in the fuel business,” he says.
Climate Change
Shopoff says he was talking about climate change “long before Al Gore was writing about it,” referring to the former vice president and climate activist.
Shopoff owns 20% of the company. He and the company’s other founders count a 75% stake in the business. The Series B investors own 25%.
On Feb. 16, Vertimass and World Energy of Boston announced a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development and application of Vertimass Technologies to produce renewable fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel.
Real Estate Work
Shopoff acknowledges that his interest in low-carbon fuels is a “pretty dramatic shift” from his real estate businesses. He still has plenty going on there, making him one of OC’s best-known developers.
The Business Journal in January was first to report on an affiliate of Shopoff Realty Investments completing a $65 million purchase of a nearly 19-acre site in Fountain Valley that’s likely to be turned into a residential development.
Shopoff also is overseeing the development of the Uptown Newport mixed-use project in Newport Beach along Jamboree Road, which counts a collection of rentals and for-sale units that are being built by a mix of firms.
Shopoff is also overseeing the 29-acre Magnolia Tank Farm development site not far from the ocean in Huntington Beach, which in early 2021 got the city’s okay for a mix of homes, restaurants, retail space and a hotel.
