Lignol Innovations, Inc., the US subsidiary, has also signed a Project Development Agreement with Suncor Energy Products Inc. and its affiliate Suncor Energy (US) to jointly fund the project development costs related to the DOE application.

The company originally intended to produce lignin-based bioproducts in conjunction with ethanol and other extractives from British Columbia’s forest sector biomass (softwood) with a focus on bioproducts first, and ethanol or biofuels second.

Lignol uses a modified solvent-based pre-treatment technology based on original ‘Alcell’ biorefining technology developed by a former affiliate of General Electric (GE), and then further developed and commercialized for wood-pulp applications by a subsidiary of Repap Enterprises Inc. The full Lignol production process for cellulosic ethanol consists of pre-treatment, hydrolysis and fermentation.

Lignol recently established a Cellulosic Ethanol Development Center in Vancouver which consists of a pilot plant, an enzyme development laboratory and an engineering group. Lignol is integrating its delignification pre-treatment process with recently acquired saccharification and fermentation process capabilities. Lignol will initially apply its technology to the processing of wood chips and subsequently for a range of other cellulosic feedstocks.

In June, Lignol Innovations announced successful trial results in the conversion of various wood species to cellulosic ethanol. Lignol also announced that it has received a contribution agreement for up to $150,000 in additional funding from Ethanol BC, an organization funded by various forest products companies in British Columbia to encourage innovative utilization of wood residues within the province.

GE first developed the delignification process in the early 1970s to produce ethanol and organosolv lignin to be used as a clean-burning gas turbine fuel. The process was subsequently applied to the pulp and paper industry, and commercialized by Repap Enterprises between 1987 and 1997 to generate wood pulp.

Repap refocused the Alcell delignification process as a pulping process in which lignin (the natural glue in wood) was removed, and following bleaching, produced a 100% cellulose/hemicellulose wood pulp. In total, General Electric and Repap spent more than $100 million developing the technology.

In October 2001, Lignol completed an agreement with UPM-Kymmene Canada (then owners of the Alcell process) and Industry Canada to acquire the Alcell technology, consisting of the intellectual property, marketing data, project files and the Alcell pilot plant.

Since 2001, Lignol has applied the technology to various species of western softwoods with a view of producing lignin with similar characteristics of the lignin produced by Repap using eastern hardwoods, as well as fuel grade ethanol. In addition, Lignol has developed proprietary methods and know-how regarding the production of lignin from various feedstocks. In recent years Lignol has successfully produced ethanol from wood chips with results in excess of 90% of theoretical production of ethanol.

Resources:

• Lignol Investor Presentation

• Biorefining: Back to the Future (Lignol)

• Ethanol from Lignocellulosics: Views to Implementation. A Report to IEA Bioenergy Task Force 39 (University of British Columbia)