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 200 pounds of biomass per day. Efforts are now underway to scale up the fractionation technology to a 3-ton/day pilot-scale reactor followed by a 75-ton/day commercial demonstration biorefinery that is anticipated to be co-located at an existing corn-to-ethanol plant. This commercial demonstration project is anticipated to break ground in 2010.