Company Name
Pure Power

Company Web Site
http://www.purepowerglobal.com/

Headquarters
Singapore

Latest News
Singapore, Aug 8 - Singapore-based renewable energy firm Pure Power is aiming to be the first to turn wood into products for the petrochemical and food industries.

The rally in oil prices has led to growth in using biomass, such as plantation or waste wood and crops, to make ethanol to blend with motor gasoline, but Pure Power said this process usually loses other compounds that can be sold at higher margins.

"Ethanol is the tip of the iceberg. There's a huge invisible as well -- for us that's the petrochemical industry," said Pure Power Chief Executive Officer David Milroy in an interview on Friday. "We're the first out of the blocks."

The firm is aiming to break down willow trees and other feedstocks to produce lignin, which it says is a direct substitute for fossil-fuel based phenols used by the petrochemical industry to make plastics.

"It's a sustainable resource that is not depleting fossil fuels," Milroy said.

The production cost was on a par with phenols when oil was $70 a barrel, Milroy said. Oil prices are trading at $118 a barrel after reaching nearly $150 earlier this year.

Japanese trading houses have tested the product and it has had interest from major petrochemicals firms, Milroy said. Singapore is home to petrochemical crackers run by Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.

The firm has raised capital through private investors and plans an initial public offering in 2010, when it will start its first plant. It will build one or two plants a year near waste wood sources, with Southeast Asia, Brazil and Canada possible venues.

The conversion process produces 50 percent cellulosic ethanol for transport fuel, but the remainder -- split between lignin and xylose that is a sweetener commonly used in foods in Asia -- will provide over 80 percent of the revenues, Milroy said.

Cellulosic ethanol is seen as a promising future alternative fuel if costs can be lowered because its feedstock does not compete with food. Many analysts blame surging world food prices on increased demand for ethanol.

Pure Power bought research firm Biojoule that developed the technology in New Zealand, where it has a willow plantation and is looking to grow more on marginal farmlands.

"The only way to be sustainable is to be vertically integrated," said Milroy, pointing to a string of new biofuel refineries around Southeast Asia that lie unused because of a surge in the cost of feedstock crude palm oil.

Pure Power also owns a stake in another New Zealand research firm that aims to turn algae into biodiesel and aviation fuel.

AUCKLAND, 7 July 2008 – Renewable energy company, Pure Power, today announced its first commercial offering of a new generation of biofuel crops: cuttings of Salix, a variety of willow. The company will have cuttings ready for foresters and farmers to commence commercial energy farming of Salix in 2009.

The new crops will provide a secure supply of lignocellulosic feedstock from which Pure Power will produce biofuels and a range of bioproducts for use in the manufacture of paints, resins, adhesives and bioplastics.

Lignocellulosics is the science governing the conversion of woody biomass to biofuels and other bioproducts. Pure Power gained its lignocellulosic capability when it acquired New Zealand company, BioJoule, in December 2007. That group now forms the nucleus of Pure Power’s lignocellulosics science team. “Lignocellulosic biofuels are the current hot topic fuelling discussions worldwide around renewable sources of energy that can replace fossil fuels,” says Pure Power’s Chairman and Chief Executive, David Milroy. “However, one of the major barriers to their widespread production is that there is currently no substantial production of next generation biomass crops.”

To address this problem Pure Power has made a substantial investment in a Salix nursery programme. After four years of trialling shrubby specimens by its team of foresters, nursery growers and scientists skilled in plant physiology and genetics, Pure Power is now ready to offer cuttings that will allow farmers to plant up to 500 hectares in 2009, 1000 in 2010 , doubling each year thereafter. Pure Power currently has 37 hectares of Salix in nursery plantations at various stages of development. “This represents a significant step towards yielding a reliable and secure supply of woody biomass for use as a lignocellulosic feedstock from which we can produce a portfolio of biofuels and a range of bio-products all based on sustainably produced renewable feedstocks,” says Mr Milroy.

Salix crops can be harvested four years after planting, and re-harvested every three years thereafter for twenty years, meaning energy farmers get between six and eight crops from a single planting. Pure Power is now working with interested farmers and foresters to help them better understand how growing Salix may fit with their crop mix and long-term interests.

Pure Power is unique amongst renewable energy companies in targeting the delivery of both biofuels and bioproducts from lignocellulosic feedstocks. In a proof of concept Pure Power has already produced expanded polyurethane foam from natural lignin extracted from Salix. The natural lignin was tested and excellent results were shown for thermal conductivity and density. “The problems with using existing crops as feedstocks are substantial and well documented,” says Pure Power Energy Evangelist, Dr Jim Watson. “They compete with food crops, they suffer from poor energy balance and have a high carbon cost.

To be sustainable, the biofuels industry must be based on next generation lignocellulosic feedstocks. The transition from the lab to full-scale industrial production requires there to be vertical integration of all aspects of production, from security of feedstock supply to diversity of end products.

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