Cooperation with CRI Catalyst Company opens way for investment in multi-biomass to biofuel infrastructure

AUCKLAND. NZ, April 18, 2012:

Kiwi clean energy company Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation believes it is poised to make refining next generation biofuels a commercial reality in New Zealand and in overseas projects within three years.

Aquaflow announced today it has executed a technology cooperation agreement with CRI Catalyst Company (CRI). CRI has exclusive global sublicensing rights to IH2 technology, a commercially viable renewable fuel process developed by Gas Technology Institute (GTI), which is ready for infrastructure investment.

The companies had been working together previously under a Joint Testing and Evaluation Agreement to bring together Aquaflow’s unique capability with algae, mixed and varied feedstocks, and CRI’s license to IH2 technology, to prove their commercial effectiveness in producing hydrocarbon fuel.

Aquaflow director Nick Gerritsen explains “Aquaflow believes it now has a world-leading multi-biomass to biofuels capability and technology offering. This is a robust and highly integrated technology package which can leapfrog other biomass to biofuel technologies because it goes straight to blended fuel stock and avoids intermediate pathways.

“We should be able to produce renewable hydrocarbon fuel that is equivalent to fossil fuel at a cost that is highly competitive with the current per barrel price of crude oil.”

Gerritsen says New Zealand could turn its biomass into enough carbon-neutral biofuel to meet its renewable fuels’ requirement within ten years.

“While this could be achieved without carbon taxes or Government subsidies, we believe this is nationally significant and the NZ Government’s support is welcome.”

The technology could be replicated in other parts of the world where suitable feedstocks and waste streams exist.

“We believe this is a game changer. The current estimation of the IH2 process economics suggests it to be among the most economical for renewable hydrocarbon fuel production. The combination of Aquaflow multi-biomass feed and CRI IH2 technologies means that any biomass – algae, wood waste, agricultural waste such as vine prunings, invasive weeds like gorse or broom and solid waste, can be turned into renewable transport fuels.”

“The technology is self-sufficient and means that regional fuel refining is now a real possibility. New Zealand has the opportunity to take advantage of this breakthrough.
The ability to produce our own commercially viable biofuels which integrate with current infrastructure would increase our economic competitiveness, improve our environmental performance and reduce our reliance upon imported crude oil. Benefits would flow through our economy in terms of new jobs and boosts to regional businesses.”

Gerritsen says the next step is to secure the investment needed to build the organisational capability and capacity to execute the company’s project pipeline.

“Plans to demonstrate IH2 technology at the 5-200t/d scale are currently underway. We have a viable technology that’s “ready to go” and that’s what investors are looking for.

“Aquaflow is leading the way with the seamless integration of algae into a variety of feedstocks to produce drop-in fuels and chemicals. This approach gives us the flexibility to develop a multi-biomass feedstock mix specific to available resources worldwide. Aquaflow believes this is a breakthrough for biofuels and a significant advance for algae-based renewable fuels.

”Reaching this stage is a significant achievement for Aquaflow, which has been operating ‘under the radar’ as it worked on the multi-biomass approach and lined up the projects,” comments Gerritsen.

New directors appointed
Aquaflow recently welcomed Roger Gower and Anake Goodall to its Board.

Anake Goodall was chief executive officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu from 2007 until 2011, and before that managed Ngāi Tahu’s historical Treaty settlement process. He has held various positions across his career, ranging from union representative in the freezing industry to founding member of a credit union to owner of a plant nursery and farm forestry contracting business in Northern Southland.

Anake has experience in management and organisational leadership and is particularly interested in the use of strategy to align environmental, institutional and economic assets to realise intergenerational community objectives. He is also a director of Meridian Energy, a member of the Environmental Protection Authority, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury, and is an independent consultant to public and private sector clients.

Roger is an experienced executive and company director. He was an executive at Air New Zealand responsible for their freight business and formerly head of the Freight Group of Tranz Rail, where he was on the team that made the successful global float of Tranz Rail on the NASDAQ in 1995. He is currently director and chairman of PrimePort in Timaru and listed entity Orion Minerals Group and a number of private companies.

Roger graduated from Cambridge University with an M Phil, having written his thesis on high tech spin-outs.

He has a management consultancy business providing strategic advice and capital to start-ups, advice to Boards of Directors and policy advice to government departments.

Previous roles included listing Charlies Trading Company as chairman, director of Ports of Auckland and he has held directorships with CCOs in Auckland and Manukau City.

Sunshine Coast – November 8 2011

Energy Parks Australia Pty is partnering with Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation to develop the infrastructure for energy parks to produce Next Generation biofuels from multi biomass sources.

The first site has been identified on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, while others are being researched for suitability.

Aquaflow chair Barrie Leay says wild micro algae, wood waste, bagasse and other green municipal waste can now all be converted to the next generation of biofuels, including bio-petrol, bio-diesel and jet fuel. He says the unique chemical qualities of algae can be maximised within a mix of other biomass streams.

“Aquaflow is a world leader in converting waste biomass to liquid bio-fuels. Our partnerships have included Boeing, Honeywell/UOP, CRI Catalyst company and other international companies, and we have worked with the US Departments of Energy and Department of Defence as funding agencies.”

Aquaflow has expertise in the chemistry, design and building of its own renewable bio-fuels plant, and has a collaborative agreement with CRI Catalyst relating to the use of IH2 thermal conversion of algae and other biomass to ‘drop-in fuels’.

“This multi biomass approach gives us the flexibility to develop a feedstock mix specific to available resources worldwide. We believe this is a significant advantage for algal biofuels over lipid oil extraction approaches to diesel and jet fuel.”

Queensland produces millions of tonnes of waste biomass every year from its primary production such as sugar cane and forestry, all of which can be converted to liquid fuels. Therefore Queensland’s “fuel security” can be assured well beyond ‘Peak Oil’ and create a buffer against predicted pricing increases in the future, and still have the capacity to export to other States.

Initially the partnership planned to build ‘demonstration plants’ and progressively scale up to 2000 tonne per day plants in strategic locations over the next few years, and to produce fuel at costs competitive with today’s prices.

Cooperation covers multi-biomass approach

NELSON. NZ, August 22, 2011: Algal technology company, Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation announced today that it has signed a major agreement with Texas-based CRI Catalyst Company, a provider of catalyst and process technology to the global renewable fuel market.

The parties will test and evaluate projects that bring together Aquaflow’s unique algal capability and the IH2 technology to produce commercially viable cellulosic hydrocarbon fuels and blend stocks. CRI has acquired exclusive global sublicensing rights for the IH2 technology from Illinois-based Gas Technology Institute (GTI) where the technology was developed.

The Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion (IH2) technology cost-effectively converts biomass directly into renewable gasoline, jet and diesel hydrocarbon blendstocks. IH2 produces significant amounts of export energy in addition to the renewable transportation fuels, while minimizing impact on the surrounding environment by manufacturing its own hydrogen and recycling the water used in the process.

Aquaflow and CRI have supported the development of the IH2 technology via participation in GTI projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Initially, we’ll focus on setting up a demonstration facility, most likely in the USA, and from this base we will expand into the project opportunities currently in the Aquaflow pipeline – across a number of geographies,” comments Aquaflow director, Nick Gerritsen.

He says this agreement is the culmination of four years’ work that Aquaflow has been doing behind the scenes; that is, a multi-biomass approach in which the unique chemical qualities of algae can be maximised within a mix of other biomass streams.

“Aquaflow is one of the first companies in the world to take this broader approach to incorporate algae in feedstocks to enable the near-term production of drop-in fuels and chemicals. This approach gives us the flexibility to develop a multi-biomass feedstock mix specific to available resources worldwide. We believe this is a significant advance for algal biofuels over lipid oil extraction approaches to diesel and jet fuel.”

Gerritsen says Aquaflow and CRI have developed a strong partnership and a shared vision for the future of renewable fuels.

About Aquaflow
Based in Nelson, New Zealand, Aquaflow was formed in October 2005 and its major shareholders are technology start-up expert Nick Gerritsen, and successful renewable energy developers Vicki Buck and Barrie Leay. In May 2006, Aquaflow announced that it had produced the world’s first bio-diesel derived from wild micro-algae sourced from local sewerage ponds. The company also created the world’s first Jet A-1 compliant SPK from wild algae in 2008. Aquaflow is one of the world’s leading algal technology companies. Its patented process is dual-edged in that it remediates waste water and creates feedstock for green crude oil without the genetic modification of the algae species. For more information please visit: www.aquaflowgroup.com

About CRI
Based in Houston, Texas, USA CRI is a major provider of technology to the global petrochemical and renewable fuels markets. It is a leading provider of ethylene oxide, selective hydrogenation, environmental and renewable fuel/chemicals technology. For more information please visit: www.cricatalyst.com.

Much more to Kiwi algal technology than just fuel production

AUCKLAND. NZ, December 10, 2010: Algal technology company, Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation announced today that it is leading the world with the development of twenty high value chemicals from wild algae.

Aquaflow has a library of over 100 useful chemical compounds it has isolated which have potential uses in the industrial, transportation, textiles, health and hygiene markets.

The global chemical industry is reliant on fossil fuels and is worth US$400bn per annum.

Aquaflow director Nick Gerritsen says that some of the chemicals appear on the top strategic chemical list of the United States Department of Energy – Top Value Added Chemicals from Biomass Sugars and Synthesis Gas.

Following is the list :

“This means we can target large, global market sectors that touch on everybody. Our technology can create clean, renewable fuels, remediate wastewater and now produce high value chemicals. This breakthrough shows once again the equivalence of Aquaflow green crude to fossil crude and its diversity of products.”

Gerritsen says one of the most exciting discoveries of its significant chemistry programme has been in the area of bio-polymers from pyrrolidinones. Bio-polymers can be converted into packaging materials, for example, which are renewable, and can be carbon neutral.

Aquaflow is one of the world’s leading algal technology companies. The company recently announced its intention to make algae-derived fuels and chemicals a reality in the very near future.

“This latest advance shows Aquaflow is reaching across a series of important vertical markets.”

About Aquaflow
Aquaflow was formed in October 2005 and its major shareholders are technology start-up expert Nick Gerritsen, and successful renewable energy developers Vicki Buck and Barrie Leay. In May 2006, Aquaflow announced that it had produced the world’s first bio-diesel derived from wild micro-algae sourced from local sewage ponds. Aquaflow is one of the world’s leading algal technology companies. Its patented process is dual-edged in that it remediates waste water and creates feedstock for green crude oil without the genetic modification of the algae species. For more information please visit: www.aquaflowgroup.com

Firms to collaborate on creating next generation, low-cost clean energy source

AUCKLAND. NZ, December 1, 2010: Algal technology company, Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation announced today that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Impulse Devices, Inc (IDI) of California, United States.

Aquaflow director Nick Gerritsen says that the companies intend to work together to develop next generation technology to produce low-cost, renewable energy and chemicals, among other applications.

Aquaflow is one of the world’s leading algal technology companies. Impulse Devices, Inc, which was founded in 1999, has become the world leader in high-pressure cavitation performance as well as being at the forefront of developing the technological capacity required for acoustic inertial confinement fusion (Acoustic ICF).

In essence, acoustic cavitation (AC) uses high frequency sound waves to form cavities, or microbubbles, in liquids. The microbubbles eventually implode producing high temperatures and energy. Acoustic cavitation devices may be built for a fraction of the cost of nuclear fusion reactors to produce relatively safe and low-polluting energy.

“This is another example of Aquaflow pushing the envelope and not simply sitting back and accepting some status quo view of the algae biomass sector. It is significant for a New Zealand-based company to continually attract and develop top tier international support and collaboration,” comments Gerritsen.

In addition, both companies are committed to long term wastewater remediation in man-made (oxidation pond) and natural (rivers and lakes) water sources. AC technology is also able to control algal growth and potentially improve water quality without producing toxic by-products.

“We are committed to making algae-derived fuels and chemicals a reality in the very near future. The ability to experiment and potentially apply the Impulse Devices’ technology may lead to faster advancement and the development of another pathway,” explains Gerritsen.

Dr Peter Nelson, VP Corporate Development at IDI, stated: “We are pleased to join forces with Aquaflow in order to explore the application of high-pressure AC to algae biomass processing. IDI is the world leader in pressurised AC and believes that by bringing its technology together with Aquaflow’s process, the energy cost of generating liquid bio-fuel can be substantially reduced.”

About Aquaflow

Aquaflow was formed in October 2005 and its major shareholders are technology start-up expert Nick Gerritsen, and successful renewable energy developers Vicki Buck and Barrie Leay. In May 2006, Aquaflow announced that it had produced the world’s first bio-diesel derived from wild micro-algae sourced from local sewage ponds. Aquaflow is one of the world’s leading algal technology companies. Its patented process is dual-edged in that it remediates waste water and creates feedstock for green crude oil without the genetic modification of the algae species. For more information please visit: www.aquaflowgroup.com