Laurence Alexander: And then just sorry, one last one, and then I’ll hop back in the queue. Is there a — would all of those agreements, if they did pan out, do those represent any significant capital requirements on your part? Or is the goal on that side of the business to be mostly capital-light?
Steve Croskrey: Well, the goal is to be capital-light, but worst case, if we do a co-location, which we’re going to do it, that’s just how it’s going to be done because those suppliers, they have the raw materials that we need, these big oil and gas companies, and so that’s just the natural way that it will work. If we do that, the — that will reduce the CapEx requirement because we will piggyback off of their infrastructure for things like utilities, chillers and electricity and things like that. So we can reduce our capital requirement that way. We’re hopeful that we’ll find a partner through this process on the commercial side that would like to participate. And we think if we get that, and we think the co-location partner will also want to participate and we can reduce our CapEx requirement even more.
But the beauty of this product is that the CapEx cost on a per pound basis is one-fifth of the cost of a Nodax plant. And so even if we have to fit the bill, we expect to be able to do it on a project financing basis.
Laurence Alexander: Okay, great. Okay, Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And your next question is from Jon Tanwanteng from CJS Securities. Please ask your question.
Jon Tanwanteng: Hi, yes. I just wanted to follow-up on that last one would be, the catalytic PHA. I was wondering when is the earliest you think you could see commercial volumes in that product? Just given the deals that you’re working on now, the partners and the kind of the — with the pilot starting up?
Steve Croskrey: Yes. Look, I think you’ve got to kind of assume a couple of years to build a plant. I mean, it can be done more quickly. But just to be safe or fair in the analysis here, I’d just call it two years to build a plant. And since we’re — we don’t actually have that customer partner ready to negotiate. We’ve got the customer partners that we think we’re going to be negotiating with, but they’ve got to validate the material with their customers first. So I think you got to add — probably add a year to that two years at any given time. So I think three years out is fair in terms of an earliest date.
Jon Tanwanteng: Okay, great. That’s helpful. Mike, if you could, just any thoughts on OpEx this year and if that’s going to be — remain relatively stable? Or if there’s any growth plan in the budget guidance?
Mike Hajost: Yes. I mean I think we’re really pleased with how we’ve been driving OpEx cost down. If you look at the fourth quarter, we’re down another $1 million year-over-year for the whole year 2023 versus ’22, I think we drove down $14.4 million, and we’re expecting to reduce those operating costs again in 2024 year-over-year versus ’23 in the range of about $4 million or so. We’ve gone through rationalizing headcount. We’ve gotten rid of a lot of outside services and consultants. We’re utilizing our own staff and capabilities to do a lot of those things. We’ve gotten some better insurance rates. So a number of things across all the boards. We’re looking everywhere. That’s kind of where we ended up, to which we are really pleased because it’s just been a nice year-over-year change now for a couple of years and getting those costs down.
Jon Tanwanteng: Got it. That’s helpful and good to hear. And just last before I go. Just any thoughts on volumes in Q1? Just we’re pretty close on the quarter anyways.
Steve Croskrey: Yes. We can — we mentioned in our press release that our year-over-year growth with PHA for the quarter will be approximately 60%, and I think it will probably exceed 60% at this point.
Mike Hajost: Jon, if I can add also on the OpEx?
Steve Croskrey: I’m sorry, Jon.
Jon Tanwanteng: I’m sorry. Was there NPL in Q1 last year?
Steve Croskrey: Yes. But we’re not — we haven’t provided any guidance on that.
Mike Hajost: And Jon, I want to just add one thing. I think it would be good for everybody to know. In terms of your models, all that stock-based comp it’s been running close to $56 million a year, I think, in 2023. And a lot of those large grants are falling off. We’re expecting something that’s closer to about $4 million for full year 2024. So I think that’s just a good thing for everyone to kind of know not to have that large piece of noise in your models.
Jon Tanwanteng: Got it. Thank you.
Steve Croskrey: Okay.
Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Steve Croskrey for closing remarks.
Steve Croskrey: Thank you for your time, everybody, and your interest in Danimer Scientific. We’re pleased with our recent progress and the additional customer opportunities that have been presented to us, and we look forward to talking to you again soon when we present our first quarter earnings, which will be coming up in just several weeks now. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for joining. You may all disconnect.
