| USA. GS CleanTech executes agreement with ethanol producer for extraction of crude corn oil |
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| Tuesday, 08 August 2006 | |
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Company news: GS CleanTech Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: GSCT) has announced its execution of a definitive agreement with a Wisconsin-based ethanol producer to extract about 2.75 million gallons per year of crude corn oil from the producer's distillers dried grains for conversion into a biodiesel feedstock using GS CleanTech's proprietary corn oil extraction technology. GS CleanTech's patent-pending Corn Oil Extraction Systems(TM) has been engineered to help ethanol producers enhance production and increase revenues out of their existing crop in cost-effective and rapid ways. GS CleanTech's pricing model for its corn oil extraction technology is based on GS CleanTech's provision of turn-key extraction systems for no up-front cost in return for long-term agreements to purchase the extracted corn oil based on a fixed discount to prevailing fuel prices. Under the terms of the agreement, GS CleanTech will install both stages of its Corn Oil Extraction Systems(TM) on-site at the ethanol facility. GS CleanTech expects to initially generate an estimated $1.4 to $1.8 million in annualized revenues by purchasing and selling the ethanol facility's extracted corn oil as a biodiesel feedstock. This amount is expected to increase to more than $4.0 million per year once the second stage of the technology is brought on-line. Winsness added: "We are very excited by the agreement with the Wisconsin facility. We see this agreement as further confirmation that our technology can and should play an integral role in corn-derived ethanol production. We have many more systems in our hard sales pipeline and we continue to look forward to increased opportunities to help ethanol producers and their communities maximize their fuel yield out of their existing crops." GS CleanTech's focus on ethanol production GS CleanTech is currently focused on delivering its technologies and process innovations to the Ethanol Production Industry with a view towards maximizing the yield of corn-based ethanol production. Traditional ethanol processing converts each bushel of corn, which weighs about 54 pounds, into about 18 pounds of ethanol, 18 pounds of carbon dioxide, and 18 pounds of distillers dried grains (DDG), which contain about 2 pounds of fat. This corresponds to a corn to clean fuel conversion efficiency of about 33%, or about 2.8 gallons of clean fuel per bushel of corn. GS CleanTech's ambition is to increase this efficiency as much as possible. GS CleanTech's patent-pending corn oil extraction and biodiesel processing technologies convert the fat in the DDG into a high grade corn oil that can then be converted into biodiesel on close to a 1:1 volumetric basis. This increases the corn to clean fuel conversion efficiency described above to 36%, or about 3.0 gallons of clean fuel per bushel of corn. The increased yield per bushel may not seem like much, but it adds up. GS CleanTech's corn oil extraction program allows a typical 50 million gallon per year ethanol production facility to increase their revenues by about 3.5%, or by as much as $4.7 million in new annualized sales. One Kernel to Two Fuels with GS CleanTech's Corn Oil Extraction Systems(TM) Currently, the majority of ethanol production is based on a dry milling technique that utilizes more than 1.2 billion bushels of corn to produce more than 4 billion gallons per year of ethanol (Fuel #1). The dry mill process converts the starch from the kernel of corn into sugar and then the sugar into ethanol. The balance of the corn (non-starch components) then goes through a dewatering and dehydration process where the byproduct is sold as a commercial feed ingredient called distillers dried grain. DDG contains the majority of the corn oil that was present in the kernel. Today, the more than 1.2 billion bushels of corn currently used in the dry mill ethanol process contain roughly 400 million gallons of corn oil that is currently sold with the DDG for about $0.035 per pound as commercial feed. GS CleanTech's corn oil extraction technology presents another option - cost-effective conversion into biodiesel (Fuel #2). GS CleanTech's Corn Oil Extraction System(TM) offers the following compelling benefits for ethanol producers: Increased Revenue - The corn oil extracted is readily amenable to refining into biodiesel fuel which creates a new revenue stream for participating ethanol facilities; Reduced Operating Costs and Emissions - Corn oil removal can improve drying efficiency by more than 10% with reduced natural gas or coal needs and reduced emissions (NOx, SOx, VOC, and CO2); Low Operating Costs - The system requires less than $0.05 per gallon of corn oil produced; High Recovery Rates - The technology is capable of recovering up to 75% of the corn oil within the DDG; and, Increased Inclusion Rates - Corn oil removal can improve defatted DDG marketability and inclusion rates by reducing fat content. |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 August 2006 ) |
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