Development Programs

PDU Development and Operation

PureVision has designed, built and operates its continuous process development unit (PDU) that can fractionate approximately 10 kg/hour (dry weight) of cellulosic biomass. The PDU has fractionated corn stover, wheat straw and wood during the past three years. Current programs that are underway include the fractionation of triticale straw and sugarcane bagasse. The PDU is now being used as a tool to establish specific processing parameters to fractionate additional diverse cellulosic biomass feedstocks. The PDU, along with other experimental equipment, is providing the design specifications and costing to build a 3-ton/day-prototype fractionation reactor. This 12.5 times larger fractionation reactor will provide process and economic modeling data for still larger-scale, commercial applications.

Preliminary Design of PureVision Biorefineries

PureVision and 11 other collaborators are currently completing a biomass research and development project, “Generating Process and Economic Data for Preliminary Design of PureVision Biorefineries.” The U.S. Department of Energy’s Golden, Colorado field office is administering the $2.48 million research grant. The principal objectives of the project are to:
• demonstrate the fractionation process using corn stover and bagasse
• establish the preliminary design for building a prototype-scale fractionation reactor and
• develop a process and economic model of operating a commercial-scale biorefinery
This program is on target to be completed in June of 2007.

PureVision consortium members for this project include Hazen Research, Inc. (Golden, CO), Membrane Technology and Research (Menlo Park, CA), ENTEK Extruders (Lebanon, OR), The Harris Group, Inc. (Seattle, WA), the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT), Auburn University's Pulp and Paper Research and Education Center (Auburn, AL), Membrane Applied Science and Technology Center at the University of Colorado (Boulder, CO), Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA), M.A. Patout & Sons (Jeanerette, LA), Weyerhaeuser Company (Federal Way, WA), PPG Industries (PPG, Allison Park, PA) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Golden, CO). This 27-month project is laying the foundation for commercial collaborations for advancing sustainable rural biorefineries.

Demonstration of the PureVision Wood Biorefinery

During 2005, PureVision began working on another U.S. Department of Energy-funded grant with International Paper Company (IP). The project focus was pulping loblolly pine with the PureVision fractionation technology. The primary objective was to demonstrate an alternative to the Kraft pulping process for the forest products industries.

View the brochure on the U.S. DoE Industrial Technology Programs website PDF Brochure. The wood biorefinery project has been completed with a final report provided to the government.

Canadian Triticale Straw Fractionation Program

Alberta's Agriculture and Food's Bio-Industrial Technology Division (AAF) has contracted PureVision to investigate the conversion of Canadian straw into resources using PureVision's biomass fractionation technology. Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye and is well suited for Alberta, Canada agriculture. While the triticale grain has potential as a feedstock for producing ethanol, animal and human feed, the PureVision research program is evaluating the triticale straw as a source for pulp to produce paper products and as a source of sugars and lignin to manufacture industrial products including ethanol.

Triticale straw has been delivered and PureVision has begun the six-month fractionation development program. AAF and PureVision are planning a 3-ton per day scale-up program to take place in Canada in 2008.