VIRENT WINS AWARD FOR BIOMASS CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY
Biomass Magazine
By Erin Voegele
Madison, Wis.-based Virent Energy Systems Inc. announced Oct. 23 it has received the Best Innovation by a Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise award, which was part of the 2008 ICIS Chemical Business Innovation Awards.
ICIS gave the award in recognition of Virent’s BioForming technology that converts renewable biomass into hydrocarbon molecules, similar to those currently refined from petroleum to make fuel and chemicals. The technology can also produce propylene glycol.
The judges, who voted unanimously to present Virent with the award, cited the scale of the technology’s market potential as key in their decision. They were also impressed by the ability to provide a gasoline alternative for use in today’s engines and to utilize plant sugars, including from non-food, cellulosic biomass, as feedstocks. Unlike other biofuel technologies, the BioForming process can renewably generate the range of hydrocarbon molecules currently produced from petroleum and blended to make gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and a variety of chemicals. The fuels Virent produces can be stand-alone products, be blended with petroleum fuels or with ethanol.
According to Randy Cortright, Virent’s founder and chief technology officer, the company is working quickly to commercialize the technology producing fuels that are cost-competitive with petroleum fuels and face no distribution or infrastructure compatibility challenges. Virent is currently working to design a pilot-scale project, said Mary Willoughby Blanchard, Virent’s director of marketing.