Technology Unlocks Massive New Feedstock Model to Rapidly Neutralize America’s Transportation Emissions
VIRGINIA CITY, Nev., Jan. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Comstock Inc. (NYSE: LODE) (“Comstock” and the “Company”) today announced the award by the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) of Comstock’s $2,000,000 grant application to build a pre-pilot scale system to demonstrate one of Comstock’s unique new pathways to produce renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, gasoline, and marine fuel from forestry residues and other forms of lignocellulosic biomass at dramatically improved yield, efficiency and cost in comparison to known methods.
Comstock’s technologies efficiently crack wood into a purified Cellulosic Sugar and a unique “Bioleum” hydrocarbon mixture with about 75% of the energy content of fossil crude. Together, the two streams provide the basis for an entirely new renewable fuel feedstock model with best-in-class conversion yields, efficiencies, and costs.
Cellulosic Sugar and Bioleum can be used in multiple renewable fuel production pathways, however, the DOE’s grant award is based on a unique new pathway involving fermentation of Cellulosic Sugar into lipids, reacting the lipids with Bioleum to produce a single homogenous feedstock, and converting the homogenous feedstock into drop-in renewable fuels at extraordinary yields exceeding 80 gallons per dry ton of feedstock on a gasoline gallon equivalent basis (“GGE”).
Comstock has assembled a world-class team of collaborators, including Haldor Topsoe Holding A/S, Marathon Petroleum Company LP, Novozymes A/S, Xylome Corporation, RenFuel K2B AB, Emerging Fuels Technology Inc., the University of Nevada Reno, the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute, and the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
“Comstock is enabling an extremely valuable new “soil to oil” ecosystem based on the sustainable growth and monetization of a massive, widely available, highly scalable, and rapidly replenishable new feedstock source for renewable fuels,” said Corrado De Gasperis, Comstock’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “That ecosystem will leverage existing infrastructure to neutralize mobility emissions, create thousands of high-quality jobs, invigorate America’s rural communities, and advance the Biden Administration’s 2050 objectives.”
“This is a remarkable opportunity to work with an extraordinary team of collaborators to demonstrate that the U.S. can sustain an immensely profitable new net zero balance between the Earth’s living systems and mobility emissions,” De Gasperis continued, “We are grateful for the DOE’s recognition of our technology and the strong support of renewable fuels from our Nevada representatives U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen and U.S. Congressman Mark Amodei.”
“Nevada is a hotspot for clean energy, and the federal funding I secured will help bring another innovative biofuel producer online in northern Nevada,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “I’ll continue to work to support Nevada’s position as a leader in clean-energy industries that are creating good-paying jobs and growing our state’s economy.”
“As a renewable energy source, biofuels are a critical part of our efforts to grow and strengthen our clean energy economy,” said Senator Rosen. “I’m proud to have helped secure this funding to incentivize more biofuel manufacturing in our state, which will help lower prices, improve our environment, and create more jobs in northern Nevada.”
“Congrats to Comstock and their team. Nice to see their hard work rewarded,” said Congressman Amodei.
