Tuesday, 13 February 2007
Terms for an exclusive worldwide license on, what the company describes
as, an innovative and breakthrough biofuels technology, has been agreed
by the Diversified Energy Corporation with North Carolina State University
The patent-pending process, termed Centia™, directly addresses President
Bush's vision to reduce U.S. petroleum consumption by 20% and to
increase the renewable fuels standard to 35 billion gallons per year by
2017. According to the University it provides several key advantages
when compared with other biofuel processes like biodiesel, ethanol and
others, including:
* Delivers a more advanced and complex hydrocarbon fuel, suitable
for demanding applications like jet fuel and as a biodiesel additive for
cold-weather operations.
* Provides up to a 50% reduction in external energy required in
the process.
* Utilizes any renewable lipid-based oil compound (soybean, canola,
animal fats, algae, etc), thus avoiding being beholden to the price and
availability of any one supply source.
* Produces an aviation fuel competitively priced with
petroleum-derived fuel, before considering the additional financial
incentives available from the government.
* Offers a "100% green" biofuel product containing no fossil fuel
components.
Centia™, a name derived from Crudus Potentia (meaning "green power" in
Latin), can utilize feedstock oils from edible and inedible animal fats,
waste oils, agriculture crops like soybean, algae, newly proposed energy
crops, or any other lipid-based feedstock. This provides the owner of a
Centia™ biofuels plant the flexibility to use the most attractive
feedstock at any given time or location. Centia™ is initially being
positioned to produce commercial and military jet fuel and a
cold-weather biodiesel additive -- both of which are challenging and
complex hydrocarbon fuels and heretofore have received little attention
by the biofuels industry. The overall process flexibility will allow for
broad marketplace acceptance and unprecedented options for Centia™
biofuel plants to adapt to the ever-changing feedstock and fuels market.
North Carolina State University, a research and academic leader in
engineering, agriculture, and bioenergy sciences, has been developing
the pieces to Centia™ over the last decade. Recent results have proven
the fundamental science and defined a path forward to an integrated
demonstration and pilot-scale plant. The process is expected to deliver
an end-to-end energy efficiency in excess of 85%, a key metric in
determining the eventual affordability of the biofuel generated. This
high efficiency is a result of the process requiring less than one-half
the external energy to operate than other traditional biofuels
techniques. The fuel will also be compliant to aviation fuel
specifications, including energy density and cold flow properties. The
process is "100% green," not relying on the use of any petroleum-derived
products as components in the biofuel produced.
Diversified Energy Corporation has been supporting the university in
systems integration, scaleup, and the overall commercialization of the
technology. Phillip Brown, President and CEO of Diversified Energy,
commented, "Centia™ represents an absolute breakthrough and we couldn't
be more excited to be working with North Carolina State University to
bring it to market. A highly efficient, enormously flexible technology
has finally arrived that mitigates the many challenges associated with
feedstock availability and pricing, process efficiency, and biofuel
affordability." "Diversified Energy represents the capable and
experienced partner the university needs to take this technology to the
next step. The university is committed to the biofuels market area and
is eagerly awaiting the introduction of Centia™ biofuel plants,"
remarked Dr. John Gilligan, Vice-Chancellor for Research and Graduate
Studies at North Carolina State University.
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