CleanTech BioFuels licensed technology
This is a very innovative approach that appears to have certain advantages over the microalgae-based approach of, for example, Algenol Biofuels and Aurora BioFuels. The process entails three stages:
Separation & Cleaning
PSC (Pressurized Stem Classification) Technology. Due to overstrained landfills, disposing of MSW is increasingly becoming a problem for many U.S. cities and regions. CleanTech has licensed the exclusive rights in the United States to a technology that can convert MSW into a biomass material that we refer to as Process Engineered Fuel (PEF), Patent No. 6,306,248 - October 23, 2001). Our process employs heat, steam and agitation to convert the raw MSW into an output stream with uniform moisture content and particle size, roughly the consistency of compost, while simultaneously cleaning the other fractions of the garbage and removing a substantial amount of the volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) from the garbage. However, while the output resembles compost, it is high in cellulose content, making it an excellent feedstock for conversion to ethanol.
Saccherafication Hydrolysis
Hydrolysis Technology. Further, CleanTech has licensed a patented (Patent No. 5,411,594 – May 2, 1995), proprietary technology capable of converting the PEF output from the PSC technology into a fermentable sugar stream. This process is a unique and improved variation of what is generally known as two-stage, lignocellulosic acid hydrolysis. Our unique version of this technology incorporates process improvements that reduce its operating costs to the extent anticipated to be cost-competitive with corn-based ethanol production. Additionally, we have entered into a letter of intent with HFTA, Inc. to license technology as described in U.S. Patents No. 5221357, 5366558, 5536325, 5628830, and 6019900 that utilize nitric acid for hydrolyzing cellulosic material rather than sulfuric or hydrochloric acid. The use of nitric acid for this process creates a number of efficiencies that we believe will make our system significantly more easy to commercialize compared to any other acid hydrolysis process in development. Currently, we are designing a system that integrates these processes together.
Fermentation
Fermentation. The final piece of the ethanol production system is the fermentation of the sugar stream into ethanol. We have identified a fermentation technology developed at Purdue University that will produce high yields of ethanol from the sugar stream output and are in the process of testing and licensing the Purdue technology.
Together these technologies represent an elegant and relatively simple method by which to solve the landfill scarcity problem while producing a very valuable output product, ethanol.
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