CELLULOSIC ETHANOL BIO-REFINERY PROCESS
Under license from US Biotech firm, Comstock Fuels Corporation, SACL is developing greenfield, refinery opportunities for the production of Cellulosic Bio-Ethanol, Bioleum™ and subsequent sustainable fuel derivatives, such as, Renewable Diesel, Renewable Gasoline and Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF).
By using the Comstock patented process, the yields associated with making new biofuels from cellulosic material such as Woodchip, Sugar Cane Bagasse and/or Savannah Grasses, are vastly improved. The problem has always been that plants have evolved to protect their starches and sugars from microbial attack by encapsulating their energy in an armour called Lignin.
Until now, scientists have been trying to develop more and more exotic (and expensive) enzymes to destroy this Lignin armour, with limited commercial success, producing <50 US Gasoline Gallon Equivalent (GGE) of fuel per Metric Tonne of cellulosic feedstock.
View recent Video for a detailed explanation of our process: https://comstock.inc/uplode23/fuels/
The Comstock process, pre-treats the cellulosic material using a proprietary solvent solution. This pre-treatment can separate any cellulosic material into its core components of Pulp, Furfural and Lignin. The resulting pulp releases pure sugar and starch, which is free of metallic impurities, that often inhibit the efficiencies of all known existing enzymatic digestion processes.
As a result, One Metric Tonne of Cellulose from refined pulp, can now be easily digested by inexpensive Gen 2 enzymes, enabling producers to use low cost, off-the-shelf ethanol equipment to produce Bio-Ethanol, that can then be further refined into >125 US GGE of fuels such as A2J-SAF, Renewable Diesel or Renewable Gasoline.
Recent Press release: https://comstockfuels.com/press-release/comstock-executes-exclusive-license-and-cooperative-research-and-development-agreement-with-department-of-energys-national-renewable-energy-laboratory/
The separated Lignin is not wasted. The Lignin stream is captured and distilled out during the process. It is converted into Bioleum™, a “bio-intermediate ester” feedstock that any existing petroleum oil refinery can process into valuable fuel products such as Renewable Diesel, Renewable Gasoline and SAF. This intermediate oil derivative, is basically a sulphur free, crude oil alternative feedstock, that when co-processed into fuel, contributes to the overall yield of >125 US GGE of fuel from the same metric tonne of input cellulose. Future developments involve capturing and coprocessing the Biogenic CO₂ off-gases from the Ethanol lines, to further enhanced the process, to generate ~15 US GGE of additional fuel.