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October 15, 2008
CleanTech Biofuels, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CLTH) announces that it has fulfilled its first milestone pursuant to its exclusive worldwide sublicense agreement for technology developed at the University of California, Berkeley for converting cellulose to ethanol.
Under the License Agreement, CleanTech is required to make payments to HFTA upon meeting certain development milestones for validation and commercialization of the technology. The first milestone, which was recently met, required that CleanTech satisfactorily test the technology using equipment developed at the University of California, Berkeley and subsequently purchased by CleanTech, to generate fermentable sugars from municipal solid waste at efficiencies satisfactory to CleanTech.
The patented technology, initially developed and tested at the University of California, Berkeley, utilizes nitric acid for hydrolyzing cellulosic material, rather than sulfuric or hydrochloric acid, for the production of ethanol and other fuels from biomass in municipal solid waste. Sulfuric or hydrochloric acid is typically used in the industry for hydrolyzing biomass; however, CleanTech believes that nitric acid hydrolysis represents the cutting edge of current technology in the cellulosic ethanol industry. CleanTech also obtained a nonexclusive worldwide license to use the technology for all other feedstocks for producing ethanol.
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CleanTech Biofuels, Inc. (OTCBB: CLTH) announces the signing of an agreement with Biomass North America Licensing, Inc. to acquire the company via merger. Biomass North America Licensing, Inc. owns the rights to use a proprietary and patent-pending technology for the production of cellulosic biomass from municipal solid waste in the United States and Canada. CleanTech will issue the shareholders of Biomass North America, 2,000,000 shares of its common stock at Closing and an additional 4,000,000 shares of its common stock upon commencing a commercial development using the technology.
The agreement provides for the development of a commercial site using the licensed technology at a transfer station currently operating in Chicago, Illinois. The proposed site for the commercial development is owned by a principal shareholder of Biomass North America.
This acquisition will complement CleanTech's existing Pressurized Steam Classification Technology for the production of fuel ethanol, and is expected to enable the Company to enter the additional business line for the production of renewable electricity from municipal solid waste.
The Biomass North America technology is currently being operated at a commercial plant in Australia where the cellulosic biomass produced from municipal solid waste is being utilized as a soil amendment. Ed Hennessey, CEO of CleanTech Biofuels, Inc., stated: "We are very pleased to acquire this new technology and anticipate moving quickly to deploy it in a commercial setting for the production of renewable energy."
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June, 2008
(From Biomass Magazine)
CleanTech Biofuels Inc. and its Denver-based engineering firm Merrick & Co. have begun developing a demonstration-scale facility that converts municipal solid waste (MSW) into ethanol at Hazen Research Inc.'s eight-acre research facility in Golden, Colo.
According to CleanTech Biofuels Chief Executive Officer Ed Hennessey, the initial phase of the project involves testing the viability of the company's biomass conversion technology, referred to as HFTA, in combination with its pressurized-steam classification technology that converts MSW to fuel-grade ethanol.
To accomplish this, the St. Louis-based company purchased a reactor system from the Forest Products Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley in late January. At UC Berkeley, Hennessey said the reactor system successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the HFTA cellulose conversion technology using wood waste feedstocks. The technology was then reassembled at Hazen's research site, where CleanTech Biofuels is currently utilizing the reactor system in the project's first phase to optimize reaction conditions on what the company calls "process engineered fuel," or cellulosic biomass from MSW. The company plans to incorporate other cellulosic feedstocks -- corn stover, wood waste and switchgrass -- into the process, but MSW will be the primary feedstock.
The cellulose-conversion reactor that CleanTech purchased from the University of California, Berkeley will be used to optimize the company's HFTA cellulose-conversion technology.
"The purpose of the pilot project is to demonstrate the viability of the technologies, to get the operating data and to be able to forecast capital costs for a larger commercial plant once we've demonstrated it on a smaller scale," Hennessey said. Once initial tests are successful, CleanTech will utilize Hazen's research and development expertise in the energy field, and Merrick & Co.'s engineering services, to build a demonstration facility at Hazen's research site. Hazen will maintain all permits, licenses and other approvals necessary to complete the project. "We hope to be under construction on the demonstration plant around August," Hennessey said.
Once operational, the facility is projected to produce approximately 36,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year from four tons of MSW per day, Hennessey said.
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Apr 15, 2008
ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
CleanTech Biofuels, Inc. (OTCBB: CLTH) announced it has entered into an exclusive worldwide sublicense agreement with HFTA of Livermore, California to license technology developed by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley.
The patented technology utilizes nitric acid rather than sulfuric or hydrochloric acid to hydrolyze cellulosic material for the production of ethanol and other fuels from biomass. Sulfuric or hydrochloric acids are typically used for most thermo-chemical hydrolysis processes. CleanTech believes that the HFTA/University of California Berkeley nitric acid process represents state-of-the-art technology in the cellulosic ethanol industry.
In addition to our exclusive rights to utilize municipal solid waste as feedstock for the HFTA technology, CleanTech has also obtained a nonexclusive worldwide license for all other cellulosic biomass feedstocks for the production of ethanol.
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