Pursuit Dynamics Signs up First Bioethanol Plant
Friday February 29, 10:23 am ET
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pursuit Dynamics plc (AIM:PDX), the developer and exploiter of the PDX platform technology, is pleased to announce it has signed an agreement with Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEIX - News), a leading US-based producer of low carbon ethanol, to install a full scale production version of its PDX Ethanol Reactor Tower (‘ERT’) at Pacific Ethanol’s facility in North East Oregon, USA.
ADVERTISEMENT
The PDX bioethanol system achieved a 14% increase in bioethanol yield when compared to existing methods of production at a US-based pilot plant in December 2007, whilst reducing overall fermentation time by over 20%. The system has also been specifically developed to be retrofittable to existing bioethanol production facilities.
The agreement with Pacific Ethanol has been structured such that both parties work together during a 90 day trial period, followed by a 180 day optimisation period, to confirm the mix of benefits previously demonstrated by the PDX technology. The agreement envisages revenues based on a percentage of benefits achieved, which become payable in the period following the successful completion of the 90 day trial.
Based on results to date, the PDX ERT system has the potential to have a multi-million dollar positive impact annually on a plant of this size.
Pursuit Dynamics expects to ship the PDX bioethanol system in March 2008 and fit it at Pacific Ethanol’s Boardman, Oregon plant with the trial period commencing by June 2008. The Boardman plant has been operating since August 2007 and has the capacity to produce 40 million gallons of bioethanol annually.
The US bioethanol industry is rapidly growing and production in 2007 was 6.5 billion gallons from 139 bioethanol refineries. A further 4 billion gallons of capacity is expected to come online in 2008. With feedstock price increases expected to continue, the Company believes there is significant demand for commercially available technologies which have been proven to significantly increase yield per bushel of corn.
Commenting on the agreement, John Heathcote, CEO of Pursuit Dynamics said: “The signing of this agreement represents the first stage of the commercialisation process of the PDX bioethanol system and is the culmination of more than two years work.
“Pursuit Dynamics has been working closely with Pacific Ethanol over the past 12 months and, with their reputation for innovation and technical excellence, they are the ideal launch partners for us and we look forward to delivering the maximum possible bottom-line benefit to them through the application of our technology. Based on the high level of interest in our bioethanol system to date, we expect to commence our commercial roll-out programme immediately following the trial period.
“In parallel, we are moving forwards to address other related opportunities in 2008, such as the European bioethanol and global grain spirit markets, as well as accelerating our cellulosic ethanol programme.”
Neil Koehler, CEO of Pacific Ethanol, said: “We are excited by the potential of this technology to further enhance the efficiency of our production facilities. Pacific Ethanol is committed to leading the industry with a cutting edge plant network and this is exactly the kind of step-change process to deliver heightened benefits to both our shareholders and the environment.”
The production-scale PDX Ethanol Reactor Tower is a 5.7 metre high, 1,050kg in-line system installed between existing slurry and liquefaction tanks. The process is entirely physical, with no additional chemicals required.
Notes to Editors
By way of background, in 2006 Pursuit commenced an intensive research programme to enhance ethanol yields in the pre-treatment stage of conventional (starch to ethanol) bioethanol production by using modified PDX reactors. By September 2006 yield equivalents considerably in excess of those produced by current technologies were being achieved. To give some insight into the scale of the programme undertaken by Pursuit at its Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire facility during 2006 and 2007, the trial series covered almost 500 individual trial runs during which 3,500 samples were taken for analysis. The programme employed ten of our personnel on a full time basis for its duration. In December 2007 the system was successfully tested at a respected independent pilot facility in the US Midwest.
* In 2007, the 139 operating bioethanol plants in the US reached an annualized capacity of over 7.8 billion gallons. In 2008, a further 4 billion gallons of capacity will come online from 68 refineries under construction or expanding. With the completion of existing construction projects the US bioethanol industry will have a capacity in excess of 13 billion gallons, or almost 10% of the nation’s gasoline demand. (source: Renewable Fuels Association 2008, www.ethanolrfa.org)
* Pursuit Dynamics PLC (AIM:PDX) owns and commercialises the PDX fluid processing reactor whose benefits include significant reductions in energy usage, process acceleration and result enhancement for industries such as Food & Drink, Brewing, Fire Suppression, Decontamination and bioethanol production.
* Pursuit Dynamics is headquartered in Huntingdon, UK and has an office in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA. Pursuit Processing Equipment Limited, the processing equipment division of Pursuit Dynamics, operates from its own facility in Brooklands, Surrey, UK.
* Further information is available at the Company’s website: www.pursuitdynamics.com
* Publication quality photographs are available from Redleaf Communications.
|
Thread abonnieren
