Greentech Lead America: Hyrax Energy, a provider of
biofuel technologies, has signed a licensing agreement with Wisconsin Alumni Research
Foundation (WARF) to accelerate commercial development of the technology and
lead to high-quality U.S. jobs.
Developed in the laboratory of Ron Raines, a University of Wisconsin – Madison
biochemistry professor and a Hyrax founder, the technology provides a new way
to transform cellulosic biomass into renewable fuels and high-value chemicals.
“Gaining this licensing agreement for the
patent-pending technology allows the company to move forward with its business
plan for implementing the technology on a commercial scale,” Raines said.
“The combination of the license for this technology and Hyrax’s own
intellectual property outlines a clear path toward delivering high-value
products to a diverse customer base.”
The chemical process, developed with support from the
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center on the UW – Madison campus, uses ionic
liquids to break down cellulosic or non-food plant biomass without using
enzymes or costly pretreatment steps.
The company’s process creates fermentable sugars, which can be converted into a
variety of important chemicals, including fuels and plastics.
Jennifer Gottwald, a licensing manager for WARF, said, “Using waste
materials such as corn stover and forestry byproducts, society may now have a
way to produce high-value fuels and chemicals that improve the efficiency of
the agricultural industry while reducing our nation’s reliance on imported
fossil fuels,” she said.
The process developed in the lab avoids the need for costly pretreatment
efforts typically used to overcome key problems with biomass including its
water-insolubility and resistance to molecular deconstruction. The technology
avoids these problems by employing ionic liquids to dissolve raw biomass from
the beginning.
“Doing the entire conversion process in ionic liquids eliminates enzymes,
pretreatment steps and harsh energy inputs and leads to a dramatic reduction in
process complexity and capital intensity,” Raines said.
Coupled with its scientific significance, the licensing of the new technology
marks a major step toward commercializing this approach to biofuel production
on an industrial scale.