Apr 6 2010
Biofuels technology development firm HCL CleanTech has chosen Southern Research Institute located in North Carolina, U.S., as the operator and hosting site of its pilot-scale facility for producing high-quality lignin, tall oils and low-cost fermentable sugars from the local pine trees. The construction of the pilot facility has already started, with operations likely to commence by this summer.
The CEO and President of HCL CleanTech Eran Baniel commented that the company chose Southern Research’s plant at Durham, North Carolina due to the expertise and facilities available at the location. The advanced energy research plant of Southern Research in Durham assists to prepare and develop novel clean energy technologies for the purpose of commercialization. Researchers at the plant constantly develop technologies that convert carbon resources into products, including clean fermentable sugars, ethanol, jet fuel, diesel fuel, bioproducts and electric power. Southern Research collaborates with government, research and commercial institutions that look to create and commercialize sophisticated energy technologies by means of designing, creating and testing pilot-size prototypes of such technologies.
Some goals of the pilot-scale facility at Durham include defining operating characteristics, determining optimal operating conditions and seeking ways to optimize the technology so as to enable integration into HCL CleanTech’s first generation commercial facilities. Tall oils, lignins and sugars generated at the plant are likely to be distributed for integration testing to over 40 companies globally and across the U.S.
HCL CleanTech has created a proprietary technology for converting lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars to produce cost-effective fuels. Such fermentable sugars are often considered to play an essential part in the production of advanced biochemicals (bioplastics) and biofuels (jet fuel, biodiesel and biobutanols). HCL CleanTech utilizes concentrated hydrochloric acid (HCl) to efficiently hydrolyze cellulosic materials and facilitates the use of wide range of feedstocks with minimal configuration.
HCL CleanTech has received Series A funding from Khosla Ventures and Burrill & Company, in addition to seed investor Zohar Gilon among others. Southern Research has collaborated with the Biofuels Center of North Carolina to assist the HCL CleanTech project.
Source: http://www.hclcleantech.com