Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc.'s Chapter 11 cases (No. 24-12008, D. Del., Judge Thomas M. Horan) have moved through confirmation to a liquidation-trust wind-down, with the Debtors' Second Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation confirmed April 14, 2025 and made effective May 5, 2025. The confirmed plan wraps up a fast-track case that paired a stalking-horse Section 363 sale process with a funded cash-collateral wind-down, and it leaves a liquidation trust to monetize remaining assets and resolve claims.
The filing on September 9, 2024 capped a year of deteriorating liquidity for the Pleasanton, California waste-to-fuel developer, whose flagship Sierra BioFuels Plant near Reno had started up only in late 2022 but never sustained commercial operations. Equipment failures — feedstock clogging, nitric-acid corrosion, and sludge buildup — drove a shutdown and termination of roughly 120 plant employees in May 2024, after more than $200 million in construction cost. The distress cascaded through the capital structure: the parent prepetition term loan matured December 23, 2023; bondholders issued a default and acceleration notice on October 16, 2023; a forbearance agreement then expired; an attempted equity raise to strategic parties in Q2-Q3 2023 failed; and SK Group halted further investment. The Voluntary PetitionDkt. 1 and the First Day Declaration of Mark SmithDkt. 9 frame the case as the product of a stranded technology asset rather than a going-concern reorganization.
The prepetition capital structure carried roughly $456 million in outstanding obligations, dominated by two stacks of Environmental Improvement Revenue Bonds (approximately $290 million each, secured by the Sierra plant, trust-estate revenue, and accounts), a $90.5 million parent term loan, $64.5 million in parent secured convertible notes, and a $39.8 million Sierra BioFuels term loan held by TIAA as the largest unsecured creditor. On the petition date the Debtors sought both a sale track and debtor-in-possession financing: the named Switch, Ltd. as stalking-horse bidder at $15 million in cash plus assumed liabilities, protected by a $600,000 break-up fee, with a bid deadline of October 25, 2024, a November 1, 2024 auction, and a November 11, 2024 sale hearing. Postpetition liquidity came through a combined DIP and cash-collateral facility providing $5 million in new-money financing, authorized by interim, final, and amended final orders over an objection from the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors.
The case resolved on a liquidation rather than a standalone sale. Balloting on the amended plan was tabulated in early April 2025, the confirmation order was entered April 14, 2025, and the effective date occurred May 5, 2025, distributing recoveries through a liquidation trust funded by sale and catalyst proceeds, including approximately $900,000 in proceeds reauthorized for use as cash collateral. With the plan substantially consummated, the operative Chapter 11 DIP authority has concluded and the remaining activity is trust-administered claim resolution and asset monetization.
