History
Since 1992, PureVision has researched, analyzed, tested and developed technologies for converting cellulosic biomass into sugars, fiber, lignin, ethanol and other resources. During 1993 and 1994, the Lehrburger brothers began to focus on a biorefinery for converting waste paper to sugar and ethanol. PureVision initially targeted the postal industry because of the huge amount of paper wastes that can be used to produce ethanol to fuel the postal fleet. In 1996, PureVision was awarded a contract to conduct an investigative study on converting postal wastes into ethanol from the U.S. Postal Service.Also in 1996, the company began developing a relationship with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. This led to a cooperative research effort that investigated the economic and physical parameters involved in operating a large-scale waste paper-to-ethanol plant using the PureVision biorefining technology. A well-developed computerized model was used to obtain the results of this research effort.
During 1999, PureVision’s Chief Scientist Dr. Dick Wingerson developed the company’s biomass fractionation technology with a focus on producing a purified cellulose stream from biomass. After lab-scale proof-of-concept testing, PureVision applied for and subsequently received a process patent regarding the unique counter-current process that removes hemicellulose, lignin and other biomass components from the cellulose. Successful use of the cellulose (or fiber) as a chemical feedstock depends on the separation of the hemicellulose and the lignin from the cellulose. Once fractionated, the cellulose fiber can be enzymatically hydrolyzed into sugars or it can be baled and sold as a raw material for making paper, rayon, and other materials. PureVision has the only technology that successfully fractionates biomass in a continuous, counter-current process.
During 2001, PureVision began working with Western Research Institute in Laramie, Wyoming to undertake bench-scale tests using second and third-generation batch fractionation reactors, which led to designing and building a continuous fractionation reactor.
From January 2002 to the present, PureVision has been selected for six research and development grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the State of Colorado. To date the company has received over $3 million in U.S. government grants and significant co-funding from industrial collaborators. The most recent government-funded effort has focused on the fractionation of corn stover with the emphasis on developing process and economic modeling of a commercial-scale corn stover-to-ethanol biorefinery.