Independent lab verifies BTX Holdings' starch separation from wheat straw
BTX Holdings, a development stage company that specializes in the development and acquisition of technologies to extract useable products from biomass, announced that an independent laboratory verified that starch was extracted from wheat straw that was processed with the 'Hypercritical Separation Technology' (HST) System.
The HST system is a mechanical dry separation system, which has the ability to separate organic biomass on a molecular level while utilizing very little energy and emitting no waste product. BTX is currently under agreement to acquire the HST system, pending successful due diligence. BTX recently began testing the HST system, which was specially calibrated to concentrate the starch and sugar fractions contained in wheat straw, to produce feedstock for so-called cellulosic ethanol production.
The analysis that was conducted by an independent national laboratory showed a total starch content of 2.82% in the original wheat straw base. The HST System breaks the original biomass feedstock further down into three separate streams:
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: straw :: cellulose :: starch :: sugar :: ethanol ::
Scott Silverman, the President and CEO of BTX Holdings said "We are astonished by the results that have come back from the laboratory. According to the laboratory, the HST system has drastically modified and concentrated the Starch/sugar contained in the wheat straw and it appears to have broken down a portion of the fiber into complex sugar chains or starch."
Silverman went on to say "We are anxious to further analyze the C fraction for the simple sugar content and to conduct large scale fermentation testing. Our company is encouraged every time we receive results like this as we are confident that the various environmentally friendly technologies we are working with will assist in reducing the dependence on fossils fuels, and upon commercialization, bring great value to our shareholders."
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The HST system is a mechanical dry separation system, which has the ability to separate organic biomass on a molecular level while utilizing very little energy and emitting no waste product. BTX is currently under agreement to acquire the HST system, pending successful due diligence. BTX recently began testing the HST system, which was specially calibrated to concentrate the starch and sugar fractions contained in wheat straw, to produce feedstock for so-called cellulosic ethanol production.
The analysis that was conducted by an independent national laboratory showed a total starch content of 2.82% in the original wheat straw base. The HST System breaks the original biomass feedstock further down into three separate streams:
- The first stream (fraction A), which comprised about 15% of the original base weight, after processing in the HST system, showed a total starch content of 31.49%.
- Fraction B, which comprised about 25% of the original base weight showed a total starch content of 25%.
- The C fraction, which comprised about 60% of the original base weight showed a remarkable 65.39% starch content.
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: straw :: cellulose :: starch :: sugar :: ethanol ::
Scott Silverman, the President and CEO of BTX Holdings said "We are astonished by the results that have come back from the laboratory. According to the laboratory, the HST system has drastically modified and concentrated the Starch/sugar contained in the wheat straw and it appears to have broken down a portion of the fiber into complex sugar chains or starch."
Silverman went on to say "We are anxious to further analyze the C fraction for the simple sugar content and to conduct large scale fermentation testing. Our company is encouraged every time we receive results like this as we are confident that the various environmentally friendly technologies we are working with will assist in reducing the dependence on fossils fuels, and upon commercialization, bring great value to our shareholders."
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Thursday, February 15, 2007
EurActiv publishes Biopact's letter on biofuels
We are pleased to announce that EurActiv, the leading independent media portal on EU affairs, has published our view on what Europe's bioenergy future might look like.
EurActiv tracks the energy debate in Europe in a very thorough manner and presents a wide variety of analyses from different actors. The multi-lingual portal's regularly updated dossiers on energy and climate change couple analyses of official EU policies to critical assessments by stakeholders. They are by far the best sources available. We especially recommend the following EurActiv dossiers to our readers:
- Biofuels for transport
- Technologies & climate change
- EU renewable energy policy
- EU Emissions Trading Scheme
Our letter came as a reaction to an article about the potential negative impacts of biofuels, such as rainforest depletion in Brazil and increased competition with wood and food production. Dr. Andrew Boswell of Biofuelwatch gave his organisation's view on the matter, to which we responded. Dr. Boswell's analysis correctly sketches the dangers of unplanned biofuel production in the South, but ignores the potential benefits of the development of a well-planned biofuels industry in the developing world. Both 'letters to the editor' offer a highly condensed outline of both our organisations' points of view. Our dialogue is far from over [entry ends here].ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: deforestation :: poverty alleviation :: rural development :: developing world ::
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posted by Biopact team at 3:08 PM 0 comments links to this post