by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Out of the unlikely bioeconomy hub of West Palm Beach, Florida, Alliance BioEnergy Plus has revealed what it describes as the “successful completion of its yearlong efforts to optimize its patented CTS technology to extract 100% of the sugar from virtually any cellulosic feed-stock after having it completed and proven by major industry ethanol producers.”
Without naming names, Alliance also said that it is in negotiations with several “major industry producers-and-distributors” of ethanol and cellulosic sugars, with an aim of forming a JV or a marketing and sales agreement for its technology.
We’ve heard from ALLM — presently traded as an over-the-counter penny stock — that for a 100 million gallon ethanol plant its technology can boost revenues by as much as $100 million and profits by $48 million.
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According to Alliance, the CTS process is the “only known patented, dry mechanical process that can convert virtually any cellulose material into sugars and other products in a matter of minutes with no liquid acids, no applied heat, pressure or hazardous materials of any kind.”
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The commercial pilot/demonstration and research facility, Ek Laboratories, came online in June 2015. Dr. Richard Blair, inventor of the CTS process and Director of Ek Laboratories, along with Dr. Zhilin Xie began running the CTS process at a 2.5 ton per day scale, using hay as a control feedstock.
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As Professor Richard Blair at the University of Central Florida, principal inventor of the CTS process, describes it, “solids can be effective in mechanically induced catalysis and that layered structures exhibit the best catalytic activity. We have observed products due to catalytic hydrolytic depolymerization, retro-aldol reactions, dehydration, oxidation, and hydrogenation. Previous work has shown that layered acidic aluminosilicates like kaolin can be used to depolymerize cellulose. We have also found that the same silicates can be used to induce dehydration in sugars and alcohols.”
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As US Patent 8,062,428 “Mechanocatalytic Production of Chemicals from Biomass” describes it, “the inventors have unexpectedly found that when a solid acid material is combined with a cellulose-containing material and agitated, a high yield of soluble sugars can be produced. In the process, the agitation of the material, typically in a mill, provides the kinetic energy necessary to drive the hydrolysis reaction while the solid acid material has a surface acidity that aids in hydrolyzing the glycosidic bonds of the cellulose material.”
Where’s the water coming from for the hydrolysis reaction. The investors disclosed that if “the solid acid material has a sufficient existing water content, the water of the solid acid material can provide the water necessary for the hydrolysis reaction without the need for added water. “ READ MORE and MORE (Yahoo! Finance)
