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June 29, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jun 29, 2009 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) ----Odyssey Oil & Energy, Inc. (OTCBB:OOGI) is pleased to announce the completion of the Pilot Plant at Xstrata Alloys smelter in Boshoek. The pilot plant is currently being tested under sterile conditions and should be fully operational within the next 2 weeks.
The plant will produce bio-fuels from algae and capture the carbon emissions from the smelter. The pilot plant will also be the foundation and part of the full commercial plant to be built on site.
ALG Western Oil (Pty) Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary, has a Letter of Intent with Xstrata Alloys, a subsidiary of Xstrata Plc (LSE:XTA), as the preferred developer for the Xstrata Alloys Bio-Fuels Project. The objective of the project is to establish a commercial facility that will utilize the carbon dioxide produced by its smelters to produce bio-fuels from algae.
"With completion of the pilot plant, the company has entered into a new and exciting era and positioned itself at the leading edge of the bio-fuels and carbon capture industry, and we intend to expand rapidly in this area," said Arthur Johnson, President.
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Technology
ALG Bio Oil Ltd's focus is on the bio-fixation of carbon dioxide emissions from various industrial processes to produce carbon neutral products and the release of oxygen into the atmosphere. ALG Western Oil (Pty) Ltd a South African based company which is a full subsidiary of Bio Oil Ltd is currently operating in a joint venture with Xstrata PLC the world's largest producer of ferrochrome in a project at one of Xstrata's Ferro-chrome smelters near Rustenburg in South Africa to capture and sequestrate the CO2 off gas emissions. Currently all the (CO) carbon monoxide off gas from the ferrochrome smelters is flared to (CO2) carbon dioxide and released into the atmosphere.
The project entails first of all to capture the CO off gas emissions and relay it through gasfired generators to produce electricity which can be rerouted through the plant or rerouted back into the ESCOM grid. The next phase is the growing of a selected algae strain in photo bio-reactors, utilizing the carbon dioxide (CO2) flue gas coming from the exhausts of the generators, ( with the aid of sunlight and some nutrients, through the process of photosynthesis) to sequestrate the environmentally harmful CO2 emissions and produce high value compounds like vegetable oil which can be used directly as a bio fuel instead of diesel and or jet fuel, carbohydrates and protein to be used in the animal feed industry and the release of oxygen back into the atmosphere.
ALG Western Oil is in the process of constructing a pilot plant at Xstrata's Boschoek Smelter to finalize certain tests before rolling out on a commercial scale. The key to the future is integrating new and proven technology and synergizing the complete project.
" Looking at potential downstream components to reduce production costs for commercial plant.
" Focus on the utilization of CO2 from industrial flue gases
" Optimizing algae growth
" Future energy solutions
" Researching potential new algae applications
Algae strains are put into a closed circuit photo bio reactor and therefore these strains can be kept under a controlled environment and is also being kept hygienically. Carbon dioxide is emitted into the algae environment and the water with the growing bio mass are then re-circulated through the reactor and tank to ensure it gets the maximum exposure to ultraviolet rays needed for photosynthesis. These strains double their mass every 24 hours. It's then harvested, dried and pressed to release the oil. On just one acre, this process can produce 120 000 liters oil per year, it will also produce 120 000 Kg of protein, 120 000 cubic meter of oxygen and sequestrated 216 000 cubic meter of carbon dioxide.
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