Technologies for the Emerging Cellulosic Biorefinery Industry
PureVision Technology, Inc. (“PureVision”) has developed and patented innovative technologies that hold the promise of making the cellulosic biorefining industry technologically successful and profitable. PureVision’s carbon-neutral biomass fractionation technology converts abundant cellulosic biomass into sugars, energy and fiber that are bio-based raw materials to make many industrial and consumer products. Cellulosic biomass such as wheat straw (not the wheat kernels), corn stalks (not the corn kernels), trees and energy crops can be used in the PureVision process to produce products such as cellulosic ethanol to replace petroleum-based products such as gasoline.Through photosynthesis, plants (biomass) absorb carbon dioxide and store increasing amounts of carbon as they grow. PureVision has developed a unique process to extract the carbon-derived sugars, fiber and lignin stored in plants to produce a myriad of renewable and carbon-neutral products.
Biomass Fractionation: PureVision’s patented core technology fractionates the three primary constituents of cellulosic biomass (hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose). This continuous fractionation process employs a counter-current extraction technique, which separates the hemicellulose and lignin into two liquid streams, resulting in a solid fraction containing a relatively pure cellulose or fiber. This fractionation process occurs at elevated temperatures and pressure within approximately 10 minutes and is a major improvement over competing technologies.
Biorefineries, which are analogous to oil refineries, will use abundant cellulosic biomass instead of oil and hydrocarbons to produce fuels, chemicals and energy products.
For over 10 years, PureVision has been developing its biomass fractionation technology. Since 2003, development and testing has been successfully carried out on a continuous process development unit capable of handling approximately 75 pounds of biomass per day. PureVision began assembling its new ½-ton per day fractionation apparatus in October 2008 and completed shakedown of the scaled-up reactor in March of 2009. The next step will be to scale up to a 20-ton per day integrated pilot plant expected to break ground during the 4th quarter of 2009 followed by a 250-ton per day commercial demonstration biorefinery forecasted to break ground in 2011.