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November 19, 2009
KL Energy Corp. (OTCBB: KLEG) today announced that the Upton, Wyoming cellulosic ethanol facility owned and operated by the company has been approved by the USDA as a biomass production facility under the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). The approval, which was announced by Senator John Thune, is believed by the company to be the first BCAP approval for a cellulosic ethanol facility.
KL Energy is a leader in the development and commercialization of second-generation cellulose based ethanol. The company has the first industrial size plant operating in the US and is currently working with its strategic partners and licensees to commence the construction of additional cellulosic based ethanol facilities in the US as well as in Europe and South America.
BCAP, a program administered by the USDA's Farm Service Agency, will provide KL Energy with funding to offset the feedstock cost associated with their demonstration biorefinery in Upton, Wyoming that produces cellulosic ethanol and other high value energy products from wood chips. BCAP offers a matching per-ton payment for the collection, harvest, storage and transportation of renewable biomass delivered and sold to a local biomass conversion facility such as the Upton facility. Senator Thune authored BCAP, which was included in the 2008 Farm Bill.
"Renewable fuel production has the capability to make forestry byproducts from the Black Hills a valuable resource," said Senator Thune. "Biofuels and other forms of renewable energy will play an important role in reducing our overdependence on imported energy sources. The implementation of BCAP is a major step toward incorporating more of our nation's resources into our energy strategy."
Steve Corcoran, KL Energy's CEO, said, "We are grateful for the continuing support provided by Senator Thune for this emerging and important industry. At KLE we have already proven the commercial and technical viability of our process at Upton and we believe that BCAP is an important incentive to potential partners and project developers to support even better ROI on new projects."
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April 25, 2009
KL Energy Corporation, based in Rapid City, South Dakota, has announced a partnership agreement with add blue Ltda, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Brazil utilizing KL Energy's cellulosic ethanol technology for the use of sugarcane bagasse and straw feedstock. The plant will use KL Energy's enzymatic process which will be integrated into a conventional sugarcane mill, and is expected to go online in 2010.
"KL Energy had been looking for opportunities to enter the Brazilian ethanol market. Our agreement with add blue is the perfect fit to expand our business strategy as a global cellulosic ethanol technology provider," said Steve Corcoran, CEO of KL Energy.
In addition, add blue will be the first company in Brazil's sugarcane industry to apply Aspen Plus(R), a process simulation tool designed to enable mill owners to increase capacities, yields and profitability. add blue is in the process of successfully concluding its first full scale process optimization project at a sugarcane mill in the State of Sao Paulo.
"Cellulosic ethanol has great market potential in Brazil and this is the ideal moment to introduce this technology," said Peter Gross, Founder and Managing Partner of add blue. "The cooperation with KL has begun extraordinary well in all areas: the joint optimization of KL Energy's enzymatic process for sugarcane mills, testing of bagasse feedstock in KL Energy's commercial scale facility, and Aspen Plus powered process optimization."
Brazil is the world's 2nd largest producer of ethanol. Today, more than 360 mills are operating in Brazil, all of them generating significant amounts of sugarcane bagasse, an ideal feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production. KL Energy was the first company in the U.S. to bring a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility online in January 2008 based in Upton, Wyoming using woodwaste as the primary feedstock.
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April 6, 2009
A Rapid City energy company is scouting the area, looking for a home for a planned multimillion-dollar ethanol plant that will employ dozens and convert forest waste into ethanol and other types of energy.
"We think our technology is ready for market now, so we're looking at our first commercial facility," said Dave Litzen, vice president of KL Energy Corp., formerly KL Process Design Group. "We see the best place to put that plant is on our backyard."
Steve Corcoran, the firm's newly appointed chief executive, said the company plans to start design work by the end of this year, and finish building the $25 million to $50 million facility by late 2010. Depending on the plant's configuration, it will employ 25 to 40 people, and produce up to 5 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year, he said.
Litzen and Corcoran say they're scouting several places in the Black Hills, and working to arrange the sources for the "feedstock," forest waste that will feed the plant. Although the company may build the plant for a client, it also could own and operate the plant itself, Corcoran said.
The company already runs a much smaller ethanol plant in Upton, Wyo., that can produce 1.5 million gallons of ethanol a year. But that facility, which began operation in January 2008, has mostly served as a test as the company refined its process.
Most of the ethanol in the United States is produced from corn. Cellulosic ethanol uses a variety of materials, including wood chips or forest waste, grass, agricultural waste such as corncobs, and other materials that might otherwise be considered garbage.
The corporation recently received a fresh dose of cash, as returning and new investors put $4 million into the firm's efforts.
Previous investors Niton Capital and The Green Fund, as well as Warcoing Sucre S.A. and Pierre de Boeck, invested in the company. The new funds bring the total invested in KL Energy Corp. since October 2008 to $10.1 million.
"Given the economic times, they obviously believe in our technology," Corcoran said.
The investors represent interest from several points around the globe, from countries who may be interested in importing the cellulosic ethanol production methods created by KL Energy.
"What they do bring us is an international flavor," Corcoran said.
The new plant will further prove the company's design concept. Litzen said the company prefers to call the facilities energy centers, because they can produces ethanol fuel for vehicles, wood pellets for heating, wood waste that will power electricity generators, a syrup that can feed cattle, and biogas that could replace natural gas.
Much of the corn ethanol facilities built in the upper Midwest in recent years are relatively massive plants that can produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year.
KL Energy Corp's design goes a different way. The company wants its next ethanol facility to serve as a prototype of a small, flexible energy center that can run on any number of materials and be located near a city that consumes the energy and products produced by the plant.
"The design is small-scale design built for the economy of the feedstock available," Litzen said.
The energy center would include a modular design that would allow clients to add a pellet-manufacturing facility or an electricity cogeneration plant.
In addition, KL's production process doesn't use toxic chemicals used by other cellulosic ethanol producers, something that has proven to be a big draw for the corporations overseas investors.
"I think that's what makes our investors interested in our process," Corcoran said.
But while international companies invest in the firm's cellulosic ethanol production process, KL Energy Corp. keeps a local flavor.
The company is located in a nondescript set of offices on the second floor of a small office building at 306 East St. Joseph Street. The company is refining research that began in laboratories at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in 2001. Every one of the company's engineers is a graduate from the school, just a few blocks away.
"It's fair to label them our first and strongest partner," Corcoran said.
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March 9, 2009
Cellulosic Ethanol developer KL Energy Corp. has signed a letter of intent with Prairie Green Renewable Energy Inc. to develop a cellulosic ethanol plant near Hudson Bay in Northeastern Saskatchewan.
KL Energy will supply its art design and engineering to the construction of the 5 MMgy cellulosic ethanol facility, which will use wood waste as a feedstock. A second facility is also planned, which will double production.
Since January 2008, KL Energy has operated a 1.5 MMgy wood waste-to-ethanol plant near Upton, Wyo. In early January 2009, the company received a $25,000 grant from the Colorado Agricultural Value Added Development Board of the Colorado Department of Agriculture to study the feasibility of colocating a 5 MMgy cellulosic ethanol plant with Confluence Energy's wood pellet production facility in Kremmling, Colo.
Prairie Green Renewable Energy has another proposed project in the Hudson Bay area, which includes a 50 MMgy ethanol plant that will utilize barley and pea crop residues as feedstock; and/or a 55 MMgy dry mill barley-based ethanol plant.
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RAPID CITY, SD --(Marketwire) --03/06/09 --KL Energy Corp. (OTCBB: KLEG) today announced that it has received $4 million of additional capital. The funds will further strengthen the company's position as a leader in the commercialization of second generation cellulose based ethanol (CBE). The funding round was led by previous investors Niton Capital and The Green Fund, who together originally invested $6.1 million in October 2008, and Warcoing Sucre S.A and Pierre de Boeck.
The new funds bring the total invested in KL Energy Corp. common stock since October last year to $10.1 million, and will be devoted to optimizing the company's proprietary processes at the Company's commercial scale second generation CBE plant in Upton, Wyoming. The Upton plant, designed and built by KL Energy was, and to the company's knowledge still is, the first commercial scale CBE plant to open the USA, and has been in operation since January 2008 using wood waste as a feedstock. KL Energy continues to work on CBE as an alternative energy source, developing processes that utilize waste and biomass materials as an alternative to traditional food sourced grain and sugar based for the production of fuel ethanol.
In addition, KL Energy has appointed Steve Corcoran to serve as the Company's Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Corcoran previously served as the Company's Vice President of Operations overseeing management of daily operations. Mr. Corcoran's principle areas of experience are project management, logistics, business development, and continuous process improvement. He developed feasibility studies and business plans for several ethanol projects and served as on-site Coordinator and Project Manager. Prior to joining KL Energy Corp., he served as Program Manager and Senior Analyst for the US Government. Mr. Corcoran also served 20 years in the U.S. Army in a variety of executive positions and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He holds a Masters Degree in Business from Central Michigan University.
CEO Steve Corcoran commented, "In spite of the current economic environment we were able to secure additional capital to continue our growth initiatives. This capital infusion is verification that KL Energy Corp. is positioned to be at the forefront of commercializing second generation cellulosic ethanol production. While some are looking to build demonstration plants, we are on the way to building our next commercial facility. The investors also bring to KLE a substantial international network, and we are already benefiting from their relations as potential projects in South America, Europe and Scandinavia have requested proposals for our technology. I personally am very pleased to have been entrusted with the Chief Executive's position and will work diligently with the committed and innovative team we have at KL Energy Corp. to ensure that we lead the push for cellulosic ethanol as a viable energy alternative to conventional carbon based fuels."
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January 13, 2009
KL Energy Corp., formerly KL Process Design Group, announced in late November a 56 percent improvement in its glucose recovery rate per dry ton of wood while simultaneously reducing its enzyme loading rate by 22 percent. "We feel this is a landmark achievement for KL Energy, proving economically viable yield and enzyme consumption rate results in a commercial-scale plant environment," said Randy Kramer, KL Energy president and chief executive officer. "If implemented properly, these new developments could allow ethanol producers to significantly lower the cost of cellulosic ethanol while increasing overall production efficiency."
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January 8, 2009
The Colorado Agricultural Value Added Development Board of the Colorado Department of Agriculture has awarded a $25,000 grant to KL Process Design Group LLC of Rapid City, S.D., to study the feasibility of collocating a 5 MMgy cellulosic ethanol plant with the Confluence Energy wood pellet production facility in Kremmling, Colo., which came on line in April 2008. The facility manufactures pellets from beetle-killed Ponderosa pine. Pending the feasibility study and financing, the ethanol plant is expected to come on line by the spring of 2010, according to Aaron Broten, project manager for KL Energy Corp.
Broten said the ethanol plant will also use beetle-killed timber as its feedstock. KL Energy's cellulosic ethanol production process uses a thermo-mechanical pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis to prepare the woody biomass for fermentation. Because the process doesn't use a harsh acid pretreatment, Broten said the process results in a clean lignin byproduct, which will be mixed with additional unprocessed beetle-killed timber wood chips for pelletizing. He said the result is a plant that will produce ethanol and also wood pellets that have 20 to 30 percent more British thermal units per pound than wood pellets without the added lignin.
Broten said both KL Energy and Confluence Energy will be partner owners in the venture.
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October 8, 2008
KL Energy Corp. today announced that it has acquired KL Process Design Group (KLPDG), a leading process design and engineering firm and a pioneer in the commercialization of second generation cellulose-based ethanol (CBE) production. This acquisition and accompanying funding will allow KL Energy Corp. to develop its second commercial scale CBE production facility. Ethanol produced from cellulose is an alternative energy source highly-anticipated globally as a means of generating energy production through various waste materials and biomass and therefore does not come into competition with food sources. In connection with the transaction, $6.1 million in notes made in anticipation of the transaction and held by European institutional investors Fair Energy (through affiliate company Niton Capital) and The Green Fund, were converted into common stock in KL Energy Corp.
KL Energy Corp. (previously KLPDG) was formed early in 2000 to focus on the design and production of bio-ethanol plants, with projects focused on efficient construction, process optimization, and industry leading energy-efficiencies. Applying their advanced engineering skills and knowledge gained in petrochemical process design, the Company has become a leader in the design and optimization of grain-based ethanol (GBE) plants. Simultaneously KL worked to design, build and operate the first small commercial scale 2nd generation cellulose-based ethanol (CBE) plant in the United States.
Since January of 2008, the Company has been successfully producing cellulosic ethanol using waste wood as feedstock, at its commercial scale facility near Upton, Wyoming. The first facility of its kind in the country, the new plant was completely designed, engineered, constructed and is being operated by KL Energy (KL). The current success is the result of six years of development efforts between KL and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. KL's cellulosic ethanol plant is supplying fuel grade ethanol today, which is being used in traditional and high performance motor-sport applications (ALMS). KL's "zero radius" design concept technology has proven its adaptability to other biomass feedstock based on the geographic availability of feedstock and local economic drivers.
Randy Kramer, KL Energy's President and Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, said, "We are at a major inflection point for our company, as we transition to the public markets as the leader in engineering, design, and production of cellulose ethanol. The interest we have developed not only in the United States, but globally since beginning production at our Upton, WY facility has been astounding. As world economies continue searching for feasible alternatives to carbon-based fuels relying on non-food feedstock, we believe KL Energy is a leading solution provider having already proven our technology on a commercial scale. Our company has the expertise and experience required to address the needs of the United States and International markets with a wide variety of new projects," continued Mr. Kramer.
Dave Litzen, KL Energy's Vice President of Process Engineering, and co-founder, stated, "We have combined our experience of energy efficient corn based ethanol process design with tried and tested petrochemical optimization and design methodologies as our foundation. Concentrating our teams combined multi industry experience on the most economic way to design, build and operate CBE plants we have dramatically reduced the development and implementation time lines and economics, enabling us to offer to the market financially viable commercial scale CBE production today. We have established what we believe are the most environmentally friendly methods of extraction and production of cellulose ethanol currently available for commercial implementation."
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April 21, 2008
Cellulosic ethanol is no longer a pipe dream. It's real and it is being produced today.
That was the message Tom Slunecka, Vice President of Business Development for KL Process Design Group of South Dakota, gave at the 2008 Agri-Marketing Conference in Kansas City last week. Slunecka provided a detailed overview of the state of cellulosic ethanol to agri-marketers during a conference breakout session that included just what cellulosic is and what the future holds.
Tom Slunecka at NAMA 08KL Process Design Group was the first company to get a small-scale cellulosic ethanol plant on-line using waste-wood material to produce about 1.5 million gallons of ethanol a year. The company is currently providing teams in the American LeMans Series with an 85 percent cellulosic ethanol racing fuel.
" Currently there are three different teams, four different cars running," said Slunecka. "We have two Corvettes, we have a prototype car and we have an Aston Martin, all running on E85R cellulosic race fuel."
Slunecka explained that there are several different processes that can be used to convert biomass into biofuels. "Our process is a heat and mechanical pre-treatment process. There is a biochemical process, there is a syngas process, and then there are combinations of all the above," he said. "There is no silver bullet. We're gonna need them all to produce the amount of fuel that is needed."
And that would be the amount of cellulosic ethanol required under the energy bill passed by Congress last year." The Renewable Fuels Standard does require that we have over 21 billion gallons of renewable fuels created from biomass over the next ten years," said Slunecka, a goal he says is a high hurdle, but does provide incentive for investors to put money into the development of these fuels.
Slunecka also talked about the potential for the type of small-scale plant his company has designed to be created by adding a wood processing component on to the front end of a traditional corn ethanol plant, or adding a traditional corn ethanol-type component on to the back end of an existing wood processing plant.
In addition, Slunecka says one of the unique factors in KL's process design is that it creates two different by-products that have very high value. "One is a very high protein syrup that can be used as a feed supplement or can be burned in biomass burners," he said. "The other is a product called lignin, which is leftover from plants after the sugar has been removed." Lignin has a variety of uses, from burning for energy to a basis for paints and cosmetics.
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January 29, 2008
KP Process has stated it plans to increase its production of cellulosic ethanol from the current 1.5 million gallons per year to 2.5 million gallons per year, sometime this year.
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In March 2007, Western Biomass Energy, a cellulosic ethanol plant, began operations at its location near Upton, Wyoming. Engineered, constructed and operated by KL Process Design Group, it is the first demonstration-commercial hybrid plant to operate in the United States...and possibly the world. The fuel ethanol plant derives its feedstock of ponderosa pine which is found in the foothills of the Black Hills of Eastern Wyoming. The ethanol produced from the wood chip/wood waste feedstock, will be sold for blending with gasoline and diesel fuel as an octane enhancer, and as a fuel oxygenate to meet federal fuel blending standards mandated in the Clean Air Act of 1990.
The start-up of the plant is the culmination of development efforts between KL Process Design Group, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, the Wyoming Business Council and the Wyoming Department of Forestry. In April 2000, KL Process Design Group formed Western Biomass Energy to provide a platform for research and development between KL and SDSMT. Assisted by start-up grants from the Wyoming Business Council and the Wyoming Department of Forestry, Western Biomass Energy developed from lab-scale testing and analysis at SDSMT to the scaled-up commercial-version now in operation. Previous to the work effort, the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) conducted a site selection and pre-feasibility study in 1999 that suggested a plant was feasible in the region. Certain conditions depended on the construction and operation of the plant, which KL has since overcome.
To ensure a constant supply of feedstock to the plant Western Biomass Energy's ownership includes a forest thinning operator, Baker Timber Products. BTP will provide up to six months of feedstock gleaned from both private and state timberland. Western Biomass Energy does not plan to consume highly marketable wood products such as saw logs or clean sawdust. Its focus is to process products other than logs with a focus on forest thinning and slash pile material. This approach provides a means to clean the forest floor in an effort to spur old-forest growth while reducing the fuel load in the forest.
The technology developed by KL and SDSMT is expected to be integrated with corn stover and other prairie grasses however; economic conditions to transport the feedstock to the plant must be evaluated.
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