VIRENT DISCLOSES NEW PATHWAYS FOR PRODUCING GREEN GASOLINE, DIESEL AND JET FUEL
PUBLISHED PATENT APPLICATIONS AND WHITE PAPER DETAIL NEW CHEMICAL PATHWAYS TO PRODUCE RENEWABLE AND COST-COMPETITIVE LIQUID FUELS
Virent Energy Systems, Inc., a hydrocarbon biofuels company, announced today the publication of a several patent applications and a white paper disclosing the technical details of its breakthrough BioForming® technology to produce renewable transportation fuels. The company is announcing this information as efforts to protect its technology have advanced beyond the patent filing stage and were published on September 12th by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Today’s announcement marks the first publication by Virent of the technical aspects of its technology. In early 2006, Virent originally discovered that its patented aqueous phase reforming technology could be extended to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules like those produced at petroleum refineries. The importance of this discovery cannot be understated. Throughout history, only a few chemical pathways have been fully developed to convert sugars, starches, or cellulosic biomass to highly functional fuels: fermentation (for fuel) in the late 1800’s, Fischer-Tropsch in the 1920’s, pyrolysis in the 1950’s and – just recently – Virent’s BioForming process.
The last of these, the BioForming process, is transformative in its ability to cost-effectively and renewably generate conventional gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and chemicals from food and non-food sugars. Preliminary economic analysis suggests that converting sugars to conventional liquid fuels using Virent’s BioForming process can economically compete with petroleum fuels at crude oil prices greater than $60/bbl. Virent’s fuels have the same composition, functionality, and performance as petroleum fuels and are compatible at high blends with today’s engines, fuel pumps, and pipelines. They can be used in multiple applications including aviation, which currently lacks viable renewable alternatives, and have minimal impact on global food or water resources.
“Looking ahead, Virent is moving rapidly to prove the technology at commercial scale,” said Dr. Randy Cortright, Virent Founder and CTO. “Today’s announcement of the patent publications follows years of research in which Virent scientists discovered and developed the BioForming process,” said Cortright. “We are now optimizing this game-changing technology for full scale commercial deployment to help address global energy supply and environmental issues.”
Virent currently owns or holds the exclusive rights to 17 pending or issued patents in the United States, and 41 pending or issued patents in selected countries throughout the world. Of these patents and patent pplications, 6 issued U.S. patents, 2 U.S. patent applications, and 25 foreign patent and patent applications are the subject of exclusive and irrevocable licenses from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation WARF). Together, these patents provide a broad range of protection that position Virent as the only source for liquid conversion of sugar-based feedstocks to hydrogen and alkanes.
Virent has formed key strategic alliances with Royal Dutch Shell as a commercial
collaborator for biogasoline, and has attracted leading industrial companies as investors,
including Cargill and Honda.