Canadian Biomass Magazine

Comstock files for patent covering woody biofuels technology

July 21, 2022
By Comstock


Comstock Inc. announced a significant expansion of its leading cellulosic technology portfolio by filing for a new patent covering breakthrough pathways to produce renewable diesel, marine, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and gasoline from woody biomass, at dramatically improved yield, efficiency, and cost in comparison to all known methods. These technology advancements enable a new sustainable feedstock capable of neutralizing a substantial share of current U.S. mobility emissions.

Renewable fuels provide a critical opportunity for decarbonization, however, most of the existing U.S. renewable fuel refineries draw from the same limited pool of constrained feedstocks. Comstock’s plans to decarbonize with renewable fuels involves abundant feedstocks that are not used today, enabling a vast untapped energy source with superior benefits.

“Our new patent covers processes and compositions that have been validated at our existing two ton per day cellulosic fuels pilot facility, verifying that our process can simultaneously produce multiple purified biointermediates that are uniquely isolated and free of the contaminants that have frustrated prior attempts at commercializing cellulosic fuel technologies,” said Corrado De Gasperis, Comstock’s executive chairman and chief executive officer.

Based on current performance data, Comstock projects best-in-class renewable fuel yields exceeding 80 gallons per dry ton (on a gasoline gallon equivalent basis), with lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reductions well exceeding 80 per cent over petroleum.

Advertisement

“Our performance is better than the best current processes can deliver,” added David Winsness, president of Comstock’s renewable fuels business. “We achieve those results by enabling dramatically higher yields from a far more abundant feedstock, resulting in purified biointermediates that are highly amenable to producing renewable fuels using existing infrastructure.”

Comstock’s technology unlocks vast quantities of historically unused and under-utilized feedstocks. The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab has published estimates that the U.S. produces up to 100 million tons per year of sawmill and forestry residuals alone. That biomass is sufficient to produce 8 billion gallons per year (BGY) of drop-in fuels by utilizing Comstock’s technology.

De Gasperis concluded, “The existing U.S. refining capacity is far greater than current feedstocks can support. We believe that our expanded technology solutions, and the magnitude of feedstocks that they enable, unblock one of the most critical supply chain constraints for providing a massive renewable fuel solution across the U.S. and global mobility markets.”

About half of America’s historical forestlands were clear cut for less productive uses. Restoring and using just about a quarter of that amount, or approximately 140 million acres, to sustainably grow, harvest, and replant fast-growing trees for use in producing renewable fuels would be sufficient to permanently neutralize more than 40 per cent of America’s mobility emissions.


Print this page

Advertisement

Stories continue below