French firm Biométhodes has inked an exclusive deal with Virginia Tech’s Intellectual Properties Inc. division to option-to-license the school’s processes to convert biomass into ethanol and hydrogen.
This story from the school says the processes were invented by Percival Zhang, assistant professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech:
An integrated biorefinery pilot plant in Virginia is envisioned to advance the process for the conversion of biomass into ethanol and valuable co-products, focusing especially on biomass pretreatment. The process for transformation of biomass into hydrogen will be developed in France and will be validated through a biohydrogen fuel cell prototype and small-scale model car.
Zhang developed a novel and innovative process for releasing sugars that can be fermented into ethanol from non-food sources into sugars that can be converted to ethanol. His process uses enzymes and mild and recyclable physicochemical conditions that do not require high pressure or high temperature. The gentle pretreatment process also results in no sugar degradation and separates other highly profitable products, such as lignin and acetic acid. “More revenues from lignocellulose components other than sugars would be vital to the success of biomass refineries,” said Zhang.
According to Gilles Amsallem, Biométhodes chief executive officer, “The pilot plant will integrate two major technologies – Virginia Tech’s pretreatment process, which breaks down the biomass, and Biométhodes’ hydrolysis enzyme optimization technology to improve the cellulose degradation into fermentable sugars.”
Virginia Tech officials believe the ethanol production from biomass can reach into the billions of gallon a year with Biométhodes scaling up the hydrogen end to deliver fuel cells for cars.
“Rapid determination of EYP of corn can be a valuable step in improving ethanol plant efficiency,” said Dennis Thompson, ICIA chief executive officer. “ICIA recognizes the need for rapid measurement tools based on standardized reference lab methods. Our initial validation procedures have shown a strong correlation between the Pioneer EYP calibration and our laboratory method.”
“Fueling Revolution” is the theme for the 2008 Ethanol Conference and Trade Show being held August 12-14 at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
According to the company, Primafuel Solutions will deliver next-generation, market-ready technology solutions to the biofuels industry. By taking Primafuel’s advanced technology platforms to market, Primafuel Solutions is working with customers to facilitate the transition to more sustainable bio-refineries. The team’s initial offering is SMAART™Oil, a down-stream system that extracts more food and fuel from the same bushel of corn.
“Removing the tariff would not lower food prices,” said RFA president Bob Dinneen. “Such an action would halt development of new ethanol technologies and take the jobs and economic opportunity being generated by the domestic ethanol industry to foreign countries. I strongly encourage President Bush to recognize that skyrocketing oil prices play a far greater role in the complex issue of food prices than does ethanol and reject the efforts to remove the secondary tariff.”
Biofuels groups from the US, Canada, Brazil and Europe put aside their differences this past week to present a united front to world leaders meeting in Japan.
Nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, destroying a large portion of the city and trashing more than half of its 370 buses, the city is getting some public transportation fueled by biodiesel.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has signed into law measures that will provide incentives to biodiesel producers while mandating a rising scale of biodiesel percentages in all diesel sold in the state.
A committee of scientists that helps the government make decisions is recommending that the U.S. keeps working on biodiesel.
Originally created to replace over 100 separate newsletters POET distributed every year, Vital is putting a face to the ethanol industry. Throughout 2008, Vital will base its editorial on four main themes: the future of ethanol, community profiles, industry information and environmental advancements.