Blue Biofuels Inc (BIOF)

[Magmar]

Is mechanical pretreatment economical?

As LTE mentioned earlier, patents, if successful, will have gone through challenges. Earlier I posted a comparison of the patent often cited for this technology versus the process flow diagram and media hype. I needed to challenge what ALLM says they can do versus what the rest of the world is doing.

Let's start off by saying that I have researched "second generation biofuels and "lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) processes" a lot, because this is the heart of what they are attempting to achieve under this patent via ball mill mechanical processing. I want to know why someone has not bought this technology.

There's actually numerous different technologies being looked at and utilized for pretreatment;

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5241333/

(ALLM treatment process referenced in "milling" section)

Question 1: is ball mill process efficient and economical?

ALLM process uses a ball mill (google it). I have, not once, found any study, abstract, paper of anyone in this business or research attempting to process LCB by milling without some sort of additional chemical pretreatment step to break that stubborn (the science community calls it recalcitrant) lignin structure in order to produce sugars. In every case I have found either a concentrated acid, diluted acid or alkaline solution was needed to increase efficiency of yield by breaking the lignin bond to maximize sugar yield. Otherwise, it takes way too long (or needs to be run through again). For those who don't know... lignin is the stuff in plant cell walls that give it its hardness; the harder the wood, the more lignin, the harder and longer it takes to break down in the process. I emphasize this because this is ALLM's selling point; a mechanochemical process where no enzymes or harsh chemicals are used and can make sugars and lignin in minutes.

As mentioned, their pretreatment process falls under "mechanical" and they use a horizontal ball mill. They have a picture of their new unit on their Alliance Bio-Products website. Pretty simple, its like a washing machine drum on its side that spins round n round, placing biomass and kaolin in with the ball bearings and let the ball bearings break apart the biomass, releasing water and mixing with the Kaolin which forms a mild acid. If you read the patent, you would know that the catalyst is a solid acid. When it comes into contact with the water from biomass break down..you have mild liquid acid created to work on breaking down that lignin. The question becomes...is it effective or economical?
Unfortunately, I found separate publications that say using a ball mill is not economically efficient (and also least efficient of the 3 known milling techniques);

http://www.jocet.org/papers/011-J036.pdf

This is from 2013. All you really need is the last paragraph of the introduction where they state ball milling requires a lot of energy and is not economically feasible. The other 2 milling processes in this study produce glucose better than ball milling.

Question 2: Is mechanical pretreatment process viable on an industrial scale?

https://books.google.com/books?id=jLR0BgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA294&ots=q8A9B8cKMZ&dq=is%20ball%20milling%20economically%20feasible&pg=PA318#v=onepage&q&f=false

If it doesn't open, this is the book;
Biotechnology for Biofuel Production and Optimization
edited by Carrie A Eckert, Cong T Trinh


What you need to read is chapter 11;
* page 292 - Intro to Biomass
* page 294, section 11.3.1 - Physical Pretreatment - Mechanical Method
* page 318, section 11.6 - Concluding Remarks

You don't need to read the stuff in between, just section 11.3.1 and 11.6 tell you all you need to know. I hope you can, because it's a real eye opener on explaining maybe why ALLM is where it's at with the technology. The entire science community is struggling to find success with second generation lignocellulosic biofuel processing...because of the lignin! How could ALLM have figured it out, but no one knows it?

PS: ball milling is a HUGE energy eater and not economical on an industrial scale.