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December 20, 2007--
Fort Lauderdale-based Losonoco Ltd. had to abandon its plans for a cellulosic ethanol plant in Mulberry, near Tampa, after it could not reach an agreement with the property's owners, said Don Markley, the company's chief operating officer.
"That deal has fallen apart,"Markley said, adding that the company returned a $2.5 million grant it had received to the state. "Obviously, we were disappointed that it did not work out. The price of corn went crazy, and the economics got iffy as well."
Losonoco is working to select a site for a demonstration facility using gasification technology. The plant could end up being located in either the United Kingdom or in the United States, Markley said.
The plant could be used to generate power or to make liquid fuels and would use feedstocks such as agricultural residues and urban yard wastes.
Once the testing is finalized in a pilot facility, Losonoco plans to build a commercial facility in the U.K. using the plastic and rubber that's left after automobiles are shredded, Markley said.
"Ultimately, we hope to get a biomass facility somewhere in the U.S., and more than likely, somewhere in Florida,"Markley said.
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April 20, 2007--
Bio-Fuels from Waste Delivers Key Environmental and Energy Security Benefits.
Losonoco, the Anglo American bio-fuel Company, announced today a major break through in bio-fuel production using a new process that uses waste as the primary feedstock, delivering two environmental benefits in one: Lower green house gas emissions and the reduction in the need for landfill.
Initially developed by MPM Technologies Inc, a US based Technology Company, the "Skygas"waste gasification process will be commercially developed and integrated into biofuels manufacture through a joint venture between Losonoco and MPM.
The core of the process is the "Skygas" gasifier, which converts a wide variety of wastes (including household waste), into a synthesis gas ("Syngas") which is high in carbon monoxide and hydrogen -the key building blocks for subsequent catalytic conversion to biofuels. Utilizing different catalytic processes, the Skygas syngas can be converted into ethanol, methanol, DME and diesel, or it can be used to manufacture ammonia or to generate electricity.
Alan Banks, Chief Executive Officer of Losonoco, said "We believe the Skygas technology will offer significant benefits to the UK. The UK was always going to be handicapped by its finite capacity for feedstock production in the form of energy crops and biomass for the emerging bio-fuels industry. Skygas means that municipal waste, sewerage sludge, tires, agricultural residues and garden waste can be used as an alternative feedstock source; this will have a great appeal to local government as it provides an excellent solution to the LATS initiative that will penalise authorities that do not recycle sufficient quantities of their biodegradable waste".
Mike Luciano, President of MPM Technologies, said, "We are very excited about this joint venture with Losonoco. The Skygas technology is well proven and was designed from the outset to use a wide variety of waste streams. It is an efficient plasma arc-based process and since it operates at high temperatures in a closed reactor vessel without a chimney, it does not form dioxins and emissions are extremely low. In a way it has been a solution waiting for a problem. The development of the biofuels market, and the need to use non-food crop waste streams, has presented the ideal market opportunity for Skygas".
The Skygas gasifier has been extensively developed and tested, and a 120-ton per day commercial demonstration plant was built and operated successfully in Italy. The first Skygas production facility will be built at Losonoco' s corn to ethanol facility in Florida in early 2008. It is hoped the first UK plant will come on stream in 2010.
MPM Technologies is an environmental engineering company that has done extensive development work on the Skygas plasma arc gasification process and owns the worldwide rights to the technology. MPM Technologies is transferring to the joint venture ownership of the world-wide licenses for the Skygas gasification technology together with all engineering, operational and other data and intellectual property that it owns and developed through its former joint venture agreement with Smogless S.p.A.
Losonoco will fund the further development of the technology and the construction of the 125-ton per day gasification plant in Florida. The final membership interests in the joint venture will be 50% MPM Technologies Inc. and 50% Losonoco Inc.
Losonoco will further seek appropriate alliances with industrial partners for the development of projects for the manufacture of ethanol, methanol, DME, and diesel biofuels and for the manufacture of ammonia and the production of electricity in those markets where electricity from biomass or waste carries a high premium value.
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Technology
The Skygas process works by using a plasma arc to "crack" complex carbon molecules and reform them into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The process operates in the absence of oxygen and at temperatures above 7.000oF. Under these conditions dioxins, which are emitted during normal combustion processes, are unable to form. In addition, the Skygas process takes place within a closed system with no air emissions, the only waste product being inert ash. The reformed gas (syngas) is compressed and passed over specialized chemical catalysts where the gas is converted into alcohol and fuels such as ethanol, methanol, DME and diesel. Waste heat and unconverted syngas is re-used within the process.
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* The technology uses a thermal gasification process to "crack" complex carbon molecules and reform them into a simple CO and CO2
* The reformed gas (syngas) is delivered to a bioreaction fermentation vessel where the gas is ingested by an active cultures of a specially engineered micro-organism
* The result of this metabolic process is bioethanol, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen is stripped and sold; the CO2 is passed back through the gasifier
* Waste heat and unconverted syngas is re-used within the process.
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