💥New Chapter 11 Filing - Viridis Chemical, LLC💥

Chemical production co. files chapter 11 cases hoping to effectuate a going-concern sale.

On March 8, 2026, Peoria, IL-based* Viridis Chemical, LLC (“Viridis”) and four affiliates (collectively, together with Viridis, the “debtors”) filed chapter 11 sale cases in the Southern District of Texas (Judge Lopez). The debtors currently … um … don’t do anything.

Source: Tenor

Let’s work to it though.

Rewinding to ‘19, Prairie Catalytic, LLC (“PC”) completed construction of a chemical manufacturing plant in Columbus, NE (the “NE plant”) and “… had developed the original patent for renewable ethyl acetate,” which, compared to regular-way acetate, results in 80% fewer emissions and is found in everything from paint to pharmaceuticals to nail polish. But PC got itself into a pickle though: its next-door neighbor, an Archer Daniels Midland ethanol plant, couldn’t supply booze ethanol — half of the inputs in the ethyl acetate equation** — of a sufficient quality for the plant, 🤦, which led to PC going into receivership.

In ‘21, EIV Capital (“EIV”) and minority ~12% common stockholder IFG Asset Management (together with EIV, the “shareholders”) founded Viridis to purchase PC’s assets out of the receivership process for a total of $12mm: $8mm cash + a $4mm unsecured note, and Viridis was able to bring the NE plant into limited operations by bringing in the good stuff pharma-grade ethanol from BioUrja Renewables, LLC’s (“BioUrja”) Peoria, IL site, which, for folks not intimately familiar with the flyover states, is roughly 409 miles away as the crow flies.

That technically worked. But it was totally uneconomical. Because the debtors were already getting their top-shelf hooch from Peoria, in November ‘24, they negotiated long-term deals with BioUrja and made the very strategic decision to relocate the plant to the Land of Lincoln. Specifically on BioUrja’s Peoria property:

Source: Docket 5

Breathtaking.

Anyway, this is where the debtors’ troubles really took off. To construct the new plant, Viridis entered into a master services agreement in January ‘25 with general contractor Sterling Global Industries, LLC (“Sterling”), with the entire op to be completed by December ‘25.

All-in, Sterling’s work was supposed to cost ~$14.9mm and the total budget was estimated to come in at ~$26.7mm, the delta attributable to (i) a new dehydration system manufactured in India, (ii) disassembly of the NE plant, (iii) transportation of parts from Nebraska to Illinois, and (iv) “… other work that Sterling was not directly responsible for.”

“Supposed to,” we said. Here’s a live shot of the shareholders looking at the actual tab:

Source: GIPHY

Starting in July ‘25, Sterling pushed out invoices that, per CEO and first-day declarant Patrick Killian, were “… significantly higher than any forecast.” To wit, during the course of ‘25, the debtors paid out Sterling ~$21.5mm (~44.3% over budget), and Sterling asserts it’s owed another ~$6.1mm (cumulatively, ~90.3% over budget), about half of which the debtors totes dispute as unapproved.***

Either way, Sterling wants payment.