Alpine Management Systems, Inc.(fka ALPN)

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Explanation of CLME's Process
Haven't seen this posted on this board...
http://biopact.com/2007/12/colusa-biomass-signs-agreement-with-bbi.html

Thursday, December 13, 2007
Colusa Biomass signs agreement with BBI Biofuels to design and develop 12.5m gallon biorefinery
Colusa Biomass Energy Corporation, a biomass-to-energy company focusing on biofuels for transportation, announced today that an agreement has been reached with BBI Biofuels International of Denver, Colorado which designates the latter as the designer and developer of a proprietary state-of-the-art biorefinery. The facility will produce biofuels from cellulosic biomass.

Colusa Biomass Energy Corporation is located in the heart of the Sacramento Valley's rice producing area, where it finds its initial feedstock. The company will produce ethanol, silica/sodium oxide and lignin from waste rice straw, waste rice hulls and other cellulosics. The biorefinery will consume approximately 130,000 tons of waste biomass annually, producing 12.5 million gallons (47.3 million liters) of ethanol and 16,800 tons of silica/sodium oxide, commercial carbon dioxide, and a high energy lignin fuel that will be used internally in the plant to reduce the cost of natural gas.

This proprietary design will incorporate the most current developments in systems for the refining of ethanol from agricultural harvest residues such as straw and agricultural wastes. By using harvest waste, nothing is taken from the food supply. When this production model is implemented in the United States, agricultural residues and wastes will be available for refining ethanol to meet the needs of worldwide transportation. - Tom Bowers, Colusa Biomass CEO
BBI International is a company committed to providing the most thorough feasibility studies in the business. Its team of engineers and market specialists has an intimate understanding of bioenergy and agricultural processing research and analysis, through decades of hands on experience. Ethanol and biodiesel projects are at the core of its workload and expertise. BBI International clients include future producers, existing producers, state and federal agencies, and independent research groups:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: ethanol :: ligno-cellulose :: green chemistry :: biorefinery ::

The company has a US patent on a bioconversion technique that can use cellulose to produce ethanol; the starting materials for its process are rice straw and rice hulls, and in the future corn stover and cobs, wheat straw and husks, wood chips from forest slashing, and sawdust from saw mills.

Using 2003 farm data from the US Department of Agriculture and taking into consideration the availability of these cellulose based materials, it has been conservatively estimated that over 1.0 trillion gallons of ethanol could be produced per year from U.S. biomass. This would reduce the importation of the country's oil by an estimated 75%.

Colusa's membrane technology differs from traditional spiral wound membrane systems. A spiral wound membrane, both RO and UF, increases the surface area of the membrane winding a membrane/separator system into the shape of a star. Due to the membrane/separator proximities spiral wound membranes are 'plugged' by particulate matter in the feed liquid.

The Colusa system instead places the membrane directly in contact with the feed liquid and pumping this feed liquid at a high flow rate. This flow rate acts to 'sweep' the membrane and prevents 'plugging'. The niche that Colusa Biomass Energy Corporation's system can fill is its ability to filter thixotropic (viscous) Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids. For example, its ulrafiltration system can take tomato juice (Newtonian liquid) and by removing the water, produce tomato paste (non-Newtonian liquid.)

The ultrafiltration can be cast to do a total rejection of 5,000 to 20,000 molecular weight molecules. Large molecules like lignin, enzymes, bacteria, lactose, colloidal matter, fine suspended particulate matter, and proteins will not pass through the membrane.

BBI International is a renewable energy service firm that offers engineering, project development and project feasibility studies to clients worldwide. BBI also publishes Ethanol Producer Magazine, Biodiesel Magazine, and Biomass Magazine, as well as renewable energy publications in Canada and Australia. Each year, a BBI event planning team organizes some of the larger biofuels and biomass conferences:

References:
TradingMarkets: Colusa Biomass Energy Corporation Signs Agreement to Begin Design and Development of State-of-the-Art Biorefinery - December 12, 2007.



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