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August 21, 2008
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Syntec Biofuel Inc. has made its thermochemical conversion technology available at no initial cost to interested parties in the ethanol industry.
Company President and Chairman Michael Jackson said the license is valued at $200,000. The decision to give it away was made when ethanol producers in the Midwest began struggling with high corn prices as a result of an unusually wet spring. " My thinking was, if we could help them in some way - a license is a small part - or if it could give them the idea to put up a thermochemical facility in conjunction with corn ethanol, it would increase their revenue and decrease the cost," he said.
At press time, Jackson said Syntec would offer the free license until the price of corn drops below $6 per bushel. The license being offered is for use at a 12 MMgy facility. He estimated the cost of such a facility would be approximately $50 million and said the producer could generate $28 million annually. " Our business model is based on building smaller plants on the premise that there are many small saw mills, sugar and corn ethanol plants, [and municipal solid waste] stations that would have approximately 300 tons per day of waste material that we could gasify," he said, adding that at that size, the return on investment is " very compelling."
Although a free license could aid a corn-based ethanol producer looking to transition into cellulose, Jackson admitted the offer isn' t completely selfless. It serves as advertising for the company and entices companies to install Syntec' s technology, after which they would be obliged to pay royalty fees. A royalty license of 7.5 cents per gallon means Syntec would earn $900,000 from a 12 MMgy facility operating at full capacity.
According to Jackson, Syntec currently has nondisclosure agreements with " three major chemical companies in Japan, a large government petroleum company in China, two companies in Hawaii, one company in Brazil, and approximately eight large and small companies in the United States."
Syntec has been working since 2001 to develop advanced catalysts that can be used in a thermochemical gasification process to produce ethanol from a variety of biomass feedstocks, including corn stover. " There are only two companies in North America that are at the level we are, and that is (Colorado-based) Range Fuels and us," Jackson said, adding that he believes Syntec is the first company to begin licensing. The company is also working toward construction of a 10 MMgy biomass-based methanol facility in Oregon, which he expects to be operational in 2010. The plant will eventually convert feedstocks such as wood and municipal solid waste to cellulosic ethanol once development of the catalysts is complete.
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June 30, 2008
Syntec Biofuel Inc. (OTCBB: SYBF), a company developing biomass to fuel conversion technologies, announced today they have, over the past 30 days, consistently achieved over 110 gallons of alcohols (ethanol, methanol, n-butanol and n-propanol) per ton (U.S.) of biomass.
Dr. George Kosanovich, CEO, "We believe the improved results demonstrate that our thermo-chemical catalysts offer a solid commercial route for the highly efficient and environmentally sound conversion of waste biomass into alcohols.
"It is important to note that the laboratory work was carried out to industry accepted standards and the results include an assumption of only 33% of conversion efficiency in the process which we expect to constantly improve," he stated.
Michael Jackson, President and Chairman, said, "The thermo-chemical processing of gasified waste biomass not only has an economic future, but can also address many of the current issues besetting biofuels produced from high-priced food crops.
"Waste biomass, whether it be in the form of corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, MSW or wood chips, provides an enormous, global biofuel feedstock resource that is sustainable, economic, carbon neutral and is, importantly, protective of food production."
The Syntec B2A ('biomass to alcohol') technology, initially developed at the University of British Columbia, is focused on second-generation cellulosic ethanol production.
Syntec's innovative technology uses any renewable waste biomass such as hard or soft wood, sawdust or bark, organic waste, agricultural waste (including sugar cane bagasse and corn stover), and switch-grass to produce syngas. This syngas, comprised of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is then scrubbed and passed through a fixed bed reactor containing the Syntec catalysts to produce ethanol, methanol and higher order alcohols. The Syntec technology can also produce alcohols from biogas (sourced from anaerobic digestion of manure and effluent), landfill gas or stranded methane.
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Vancouver Canada. October 24th 2007 -Syntec Biofuel Inc. (Symbol -SYBF) today announced that it has received subscription agreements for $1,025,000 from Wood Energy Resources LLC. As the September 28th 2007 Acquisition Agreement was conditional upon the Company raising a minimum of $500,000 by December 31st 2007, the subjects have now been removed and the Acquisition has been finalized. The Assets acquired include the Intellectual Property and Ethanol Catalyst Technology which has been developed to convert biogas and syngas (from Biomass) into ethanol, butanol, methanol and propanol.
Syntec has established that as their current yield of alcohol per ton of biomass (wood waste, organic waste, corn stover, sugar bagasse, switch grass, poplar etc) is economically viable to certain producers, they are now ready to start testing their catalysts in an industrial environment in order to quantify the life of the catalysts prior to commercialization. Syntec's development team under the direction of Dr. Caili Su will be working in parallel on improving yield to achieve their target of 113 gpt. The variable cost per gallon alcohol on current yield is $0.48c per gallon which is expected to shrink to $0.37c per gallon on reaching the targeted yield.
The US currently uses 140 Billion gallons of fuel a year. Ethanol mandated at 10% will increase ethanol demand to 14 billion gpy from current 5 billion gpy. This presents a huge opportunity for the Ethanol industry and for Syntec in particular. Syntec's revenue model will be based on Joint Venture projects, licensing fee for use of the Syntec technology and a royalty of approximately 7.5 cents per gallon of alcohol produced plus a commission on the sale of catalysts to licensees.
There are a number of companies working on 2nd generation cellulosic ethanol production from wood and agricultural waste. However most of these companies are still using a fermentation process to convert the wood sugars to ethanol. Syntec's technology is based on thermo-chemical conversion of syngas, produced by gasifying biomass, and passing the gas over the catalysts in a fixed bed reactor. This process is similar to producing methanol which is an established and well known technology.
Michael Jackson, President of Syntec Biofuel Inc, says, "The industry recognizes that production of corn to ethanol has a negative impact on consumer food prices and farm land while cellulosic conversion of waste products are going to spawn the next generation of growth in the Ethanol industry. With oil prices now exceeding $80 a barrel the use of ethanol as a fuel additive is currently one of the few options available to reduce our reliance on imported oil."
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Technology
Originating from research and development in the labs of the University of British Columbia over six years ago, Syntec has advanced this work consistently improving results and is currently achieving yields in excess of 73 gallons per ton of biomass (gpt). The company anticipates achieving their target of 113 gpt within the next 9-12 months. Syntec continues to optimize their proprietary catalytic technology, which at 73 gpt is already considered economically viable.
Syntec Biofuel's technology focuses on 2nd generation ethanol production deriving alcohols from cellulosic material. The process entails the gasification of biomass (renewable and waste feed stocks such as wood waste, switch grass, agricultural waste from current ethanol producers e.g. corn stover and sugar bagasse) to produce Syngas which is then converted by the Syntec catalysts, in a fixed bed reactor, to alcohol (ethanol, butanol, propynol and methanol). The Syntec process will generate substantially more greenhouse gas reduction, and carbon credits than the fermentation process.
The Syntec Process focuses on an entirely different ethanol production methodology from today' s conventional method that relies on the fermentation of food chain feedstocks (i.e. corn or sugar cane). Syntec uses source feedstocks from renewable waste materials including wood waste, crop residues including sugar cane bagasse and corn stover, organic waste, manure, sewage digester gas or landfill gas.
Technically speaking, the Syntec Process is a BTL (biomass-to-liquid) conversion path quite similar to modern day methanol or GTL (gas-to-liquid) production processes used commercially. The key differentiating factors are the feedstocks, catalysts and operating parameters.
There are 3 basic steps in the Syntec Process:
i. production of syngas (CO, H2) either through the gasification of biomass feedstock, or through steam reforming/partial oxidation of biogas or landfill gas,
ii. conversion of syngas to bio-alcohols over Syntec catalyst in a fixed bed reaction unit,
iii. separation and purification of bio-alcohols (high purity) to ethanol, methanol, n-propanol and n-butanol.
Syntec Process
The Syntec Process has the potential to revolutionize the ethanol industry with higher ethanol yields and lower production costs per ton of feedstock than any other ethanol production path in use today. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the Syntec Process will enable the conventional ethanol industry to value add by using these well established chemical processes (via the DOE' s integrated biorefinery program) to obtain production and efficiency metrics beyond which traditional grain based fermentation processes can offer.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the Syntec Process is the ability to convert abundant, low cost (sometimes negative cost) waste products into ethanol and bio-alcohols without harming the agricultural land base or competing with consumable food stocks. These green biofuels significantly reduce green house gas emission. Moreover, enough biomass exists and is renewed every year in North America, and other parts of the world, to significantly reduce a country' s dependence on imported oil required for petroleum derived fuels.
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