Waste-to-Fuel Company That Raised $1 Billion Verges on Collapse

Fulcrum BioEnergy, a clean-fuels pioneer that raised more than $1 billion to turn household waste into lower-emitting fuels for planes and trucks, is in danger of going under.

The company recently laid off nearly all of its staff of about 100 and halted most of its operations, according to more than a half-dozen former employees. It signals the apparent demise of a company that garnered funding from a litany of industry giants — including BP, United Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines — and a setback in the push for a clean-fuels breakthrough to lower emissions from the aviation industry.

Workers connect a tanker truck filled with sustainable aviation fuel to a plane at Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy, France, in 2021.

Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

Fulcrum employees said they ...