We are able to breakdown cellulose, lignon, hemicellolose and xylan at this time. Yes, we are working with landfills to mine landfills in the future, but at this time we are concentrating on using new biomass that is currently being grown. We want to slow the flow into landfills.
Our process is based on naturally occuring bacteria that have been genetically modified to each faster and to eat a broader range of biomass. We can use all forms of biomass, if it breaks down in nature, our bacteria can break it down and convert it into hydrocarbon. We can get between 2 and 2.t barrels of hydrocarbon per ton of biomass.
In our work with USDA and DOE, we have determined that we can produce about 5,000,000,000 barrels of hydrocarbon per year from easily recoverable biomass in the US. This should go a long way in making the US independent of foreign oil.
The reporter was only slightly wrong in what was written. The patent papers on the process, on the genetically modified bacteria and other items have been filed in the uspto but are still in the patent pending stage.
I can assure you that I am not a crackpot, just a nerd. This technology is totally proven and we are to the point of building pilot plants to provide the engineering data needed to design the most efficient large scale production facilities. We should begin construction of large scale facilities with the next 12 months. All we have done is to modify naturally occurring bacteria to break down biomass and produce different length hydrocarbon molecules. We don’t use the term oil because oil is a mix of all of the hydrocarbon chains. We produce one length chain from each bacterial line.