|
Latest
News
July 31, 2008
SAN DIEGO
Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC:GSPI) today announced that EcoAlgae USA, LLC, has received a signed resolution from Saline County Missouri commissioners to construct a commercial Algae Production Facility in conjunction with an Integrated Biorefinery Complex.
EcoAlgae USA will contract with Green Star's Associated Consortium of Companies to construct the Algae-to-Biodiesel and Next Generation Waste-to-Energy Complex.
EcoAlgae USA received from the Saline County commissioners the approval of issuance of $141 million of the county's industrial development revenue bonds to finance this project. The project will be organized and constructed in conjunction with United Biorefineries Corp. (UBC), a technology management company, as the main Consortium Company with other integrated licenses.
The EcoAlgae USA, LLC, project will involve algae production as the heart of this Biorefinery Complex because its high production biomass feedstock only requires sunlight, CO2 and brackish or saltwater. Note these important facts about algae:
1. Algae produce 100 times more oil per acre than traditional food oilseed crops such as soy, etc. (Note: Algae produces 4,000 gallons of oil per acre per year versus 50 gallons per acre for soy.)
2. Algae eat CO2, the major Global Warming Gas, and produce oxygen.
3. Algae require only sunshine and non-drinkable (salt or brackish) water.
4. Algae do not compete with food crops for either agricultural land or fresh water.
5. Algae can reproduce themselves and their oil every 6 hours, while it takes Mother Nature millions of years to produce crude oil in the ground.
6. Algae oil byproduct is a highly nutritious protein-rich food (30-50%), which will someday help feed the world.
Green Star Products has been a major facilitator in all aspects of this UBC Integrated Biorefinery Manufacturing Complex model for several years.
The Biorefinery will be the first of its kind and will incorporate all the technologies to produce oil, cattle feed, electricity, biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and steam.
Besides algae feedstock, other feedstocks to produce these valuable products come from non-food sources and are comprised of waste wood products, organic municipal waste, switchgrass, and other waste agricultural products such as corncobs.
The four main technologies required for this facility are:
1. Algae Production, Processing and Refining by Green Star Products
2. Cellulosic Ethanol Production by Pure Energy Corporation
3. Biogas Production by MKW Biogas
4. Algae Research & Engineering by Biotech Research (BTR) and Green Star Products
UBC and the above companies have strategic alliances with other major corporations and international engineering firms.
United Biorefineries Corp. represents the above Consortium of Companies through licensing arrangements and is the technology provider and will be responsible for the construction of the entire Biorefinery Complex for EcoAlgae USA, LLC. UBC will distribute profits from this project to its participating Consortium Companies.
EcoAlgae USA and all the participants, who have been working on this Missouri project for over one year, would like to congratulate Saline County and its commissioners for having the insight to provide the opportunity to build the most advanced Eco-friendly Biorefinery of the future.
-----------------------
January 31, 2008
SAN DIEGO -(BUSINESS WIRE)(E-WIRE) -Today, Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC: GSPI & GSPI.PK), announced that it has acquired a license to utilize a breakthrough processing technology to convert algae biomass to feedstock oil and cellulose sugars for the production of biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol respectively.
The new process uses an efficient low-cost method to extract the oil and cellulose sugars from oil-bearing microalgae that eliminates the need to mechanically dry and press-extract the algae oil using traditional methods. The sugars from carbohydrate-rich cellulose and hemicellulose can be used to make a variety of products including ethanol and other high demand chemical products. The oil can be made into biodiesel and other products.
The removal of oil from the microscopic algae has been a stumbling block for the commercial production of fuel from algae for many years.
GSPI has secured the technology license from Biotech Research, Inc. (BTR), one of GSPI' s consortium partners. The process continuously strips the oil from the algae and also reduces its biomass into different carbon chain carbohydrates, proteins and other constituents. BTR' s intellectual property is protected by patent pending status.
Joseph LaStella, president of Green Star, stated, "GSPI along with a handful of other high tech companies are leading the industry in algae commercialization; however, there are two major hurdles to overcome: First, an efficient, affordable construction and processing method to control the environment to promote optimum algae growth; Second, efficient harvesting and extraction of oil from the microscopic algae biomass".
Green Star, along with Biotech Research, has been operating one of the largest demonstration algae facilities since April 2007. Phase I and II testing were successfully completed in 2007. The results of Phase III have been completed and announced today (January 31, 2008) under a separate Green Star press release titled " GSPI Completes Algae to Biodiesel Winter Demo Testing" .
The Montana facility has clearly demonstrated a solution to the first problem, i.e. an affordable method to grow algae, and now GSPI has potentially solved the second hurdle -the low-cost extraction and conversion of microalgae biomass to oil and other useful products.
Biotech Research, Inc. operates a high tech research facility at the University of Baja California in Ensenada, Mexico (see four-minute video at GreenStarUSA.com), where a team of scientists and engineers are studying short, medium and long-term technologies for the advancement of algae production.
Mr. LaStella further stated, "To limit algae research to the production of fuels is a grossly short-sighted view point. Algae have the answer to many of the global problems facing us today. Our old microalgae friends have been around for three billion years and were responsible for creating the oxygen atmosphere we now breathe. Algae grow as much as 100 times faster than agricultural crops, so algae could potentially solve all of our food and environmental problems".
Algae can reverse our Global Warming problems; provide unlimited biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol; provide high protein food for the World's increasing population; be used as feedstock for an unlimited number of industry products and chemicals; and, the list goes on.
Biotech Research, Inc. is researching a host of algae uses. Some of these 'uses' can be a bit surprising. For instance, Solazyme, Inc., recently announced an algae joint venture with Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and a breakthrough using an algae strain that can reproduce itself without sunlight.
Biotech Research is also involved in "algae that grows in the dark"; however, it is not BTR's top priority research project for the following reasons:
1. Algae that grow without sunlight do not use the photosynthesis process; therefore, dark-growing algae need expensive food sources like sugars, vitamins, etc. to survive and reproduce. This means that it is not obtaining energy from sunlight and it is actually not consuming CO2 but producing CO2 like any other animal or burning process. CO2 mitigation is not possible with these algae strains. The need to increase photosynthetic processes for CO2 sequestration is a major reason why there is interest in algae farm development (see press release titled " Green Star States: U.S. Industry Gets Serious About Cutting CO2 Emissions" from December 20, 2007).
2. Since "grow in the dark" algae do not use the (free) energy from the sun they must get their energy from something else, mainly sugars that are poured directly into the growing algae medium. Where is all this sugar going to come from? Back to agricultural crops?
Biotech Research has the real answer: Making oil and sugars from photosynthesis grown microalgae biomass and non-food biomass that can be derived from a variety of agricultural and municipal waste streams (wood chips, corn cobs, switch-grass, etc.).
Mr. LaStella further stated, "It should be understood that the success of this new process is not required for the first generation of algae production. First generation algae production can produce 4,000 gallons of oil per acre per year (versus 50 to 100 gallons for other oil crops) and later generations will produce 10,000 gallons or more per acre."
Green Star Products and Biotech Research are also researching independently, and in coordination with other technology companies, additional high tech processing systems to convert biomass algae into usable fuels and products. These products and systems include:
1. Direct pyrolysis
2. Advanced mechanical extraction
3. Separation of sugar from biomass carbohydrate chains
4. Hybrid fuels
5. Low temperature fuels
6. Enzyme extraction
7. Algae strain development
8. High efficient LED artificial light production
9. Natural algae growing enhancers
& And many other proprietary technologies.
Today, algae and non-food biomass technologies are the most likely tools to change our world on a grand scale.
Mr. LaStella further commented that, "The U.S. Congress recently (Dec. 19, 2007) passed a huge energy bill into law, which contains billions of dollars to support the production of ethanol from non-food sources (cellulosic ethanol). GSPI' s new licensed process combines feedstock algae production into biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol, which qualifies our new process for financial support under the new energy bill."
----------------------
July 7, 2006--Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC:GSPI): Pure Energy Corporation announced Thursday that it has entered into a joint venture with Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC:GSPI) (www.GreenStarUSA.com) and Bio-Clean Fuels, Inc. to undertake integrated ethanol and biodiesel production projects in the United States and certain select countries internationally. The JV company, known as Green Star International, Inc., was formed pursuant to a Joint Venture Agreement executed by the parties in March of this year.
The new entity, which is fifty-percent owned by Pure Energy and twenty-five-percent owned by each of Green Star Products and Bio-Clean Fuels, marks Pure Energy's first-ever strategic partnership to integrate its cellulosic-ethanol production technology with a modular methyl ester (biodiesel) processing platform in the United States.
"This partnership reflects many years of combined experience that the managements of Pure Energy Corporation, Green Star Products, and Bio-Clean Fuels have gained by developing and delivering innovative biofuels manufacturing systems," said Irshad Ahmed, Pure Energy's President and Chief Executive Officer. "If successful, Green Star International has the potential to reshape the biofuels industry by enabling the first-ever total biofuels biorefinery capable of producing ethanol, biodiesel, and other value-added chemicals and co-products in a single processing facility."
The concept of integrating Pure Energy's biomass-to-ethanol, two-stage dilute acid hydrolysis biorefinery processing platform with Bio-Clean Fuels' and Green Star Products' continuous-flow transesterification technology for the production of biodiesel offers several key advantages, including energy savings and utilization of waste heat, product marketing and logistical synergies, sharing of laboratory and QC facilities, sharing of maintenance equipment and plant operating and management personnel, and significant improvements to the overall production economics versus stand-alone facilities.
Green Star Products' President, Joseph P. LaStella, stated, "The Green Star International joint venture represents all of the various elements required to create successful, world-class biorefinery manufacturing projects both economically and practically." Green Star Products has been a strategic alliance partner of Pure Energy Corporation for a number of years, having jointly undertaken the production and supply of shipments of biodiesel to major oil companies in India from the United States. "Integration of Green Star Products' biodiesel engineering and production capabilities with Bio-Clean Fuels' technical and procurement background, and Pure Energy's patented cellulosic-ethanol technology and project implementation competence represents a well-rounded team capable of implementing multi-tiered biofuels projects efficiently and cost effectively."
"Each of the JV partners brings extraordinarily well-matched technologies, relationships, and capabilities which complement each other very well," said LaStella. "By combining our respective resources and personnel, Green Star International is well positioned to compete in the rapidly expanding biofuels market."
The joint venture, as a project implementation entity, is presently developing several U.S.-based biorefinery projects in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Idaho, Washington, and California, as well as a number of projects outside of the United States, each with a focus on integrating ethanol and biodiesel production under one roof.
Cellulose-derived ethanol, an alcohol fuel produced from renewable waste biomass sources, such as corn cobs, switch grass, and saw dust, provides a high-quality, high-octane gasoline substitute for exceptional engine performance and reduced environmental emissions.
Cellulose-derived ethanol represents the next generation of ethanol production technology that promises a number of environmental and economic benefits compared to corn-based ethanol. Biodiesel, a methyl ester fuel that can be produced from renewable organic oil sources, such as soybean, canola oils, or other virgin or waste vegetable oils and/or animal fat, is a non-toxic and fully biodegradable substitute for its petroleum-diesel counterpart. Both biofuels offer significant reductions in the amount of net greenhouse gases and harmful tailpipe emissions from gasoline-and diesel-powered vehicles. The greater use of these biofuels will promote national security by reducing dependence on foreign oil, result in value-added income to American farmers by utilizing agricultural waste, and divert significant amounts of municipal and industrial waste streams from fast-depleting landfills for useful utilization in biorefineries.
Pure Energy Corporation, a leader in engineered alternative fuel formulations, is credited with incorporating renewable fuel components, such as ethanol, into conventional fossil fuels to create cleaner gasoline-and diesel-based fuel blends for use in passenger cars and trucks. Pure Energy's patented Puranol and polymeric fuel additive systems for ethanol-diesel blends (E-Diesel) are at the core of several of the company's breakthrough alternative fuels, which have been demonstrated in over one million combined miles with the Chicago Transit Authorit (www.TransitChicago.com), Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) (www.ADMWorld.com), Waste Management InC.(NYSE:WMI) (www.wm.com), and other industry partners in the United States and abroad. Operated non-stop between 1999 through 2001, the E-Diesel demonstration project with ADM Trucking utilized actual operational fleet trucks at Decatur, Ill., and was considered one of the longest alternative fuels demonstration projects in the country.
Pure Energy's integrated biorefinery technology platform for producing ethanol and chemicals from agricultural and municipal waste biomass represents a significantly lower-cost ethanol production process as compared to conventional technologies based on corn or sugarcane. Pure Energy is also credited as the only privately held company in the United States with a successful designation of an Alternative Fuel, P-Series, under the Energy Policy Act of 1992 at the United States Department of Energy (http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/altfue l/p-series.html).
Green Star Products, Inc., a holding company with equity positions in various technology companies related to, among other things, fuels, biofuels, and fuel additives, is in the biodiesel production business, having successfully built and operated a commercial-scale biodiesel plant in Bakersfield, Calif., for several years.
Bio-Clean Fuels, Inc. is a biodiesel technology and engineering company, possessing a modular, continuous-flow transesterification system for the production of high-quality biodiesel from three classes of feedstock, including used and recycled cooking oils, virgin tallow, and vegetable oils. The Bio-Clean Fuels technology is differentiated from conventional processing technologies through improved conversion efficiencies and a water-free manufacturing system.
|
