Oct 15 2009
GreenShift Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: GERS) announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 7,601,858, titled "Method of Processing Ethanol Byproducts and Related Subsystems” (the ’858 Patent) for the extraction of corn oil to GS CleanTech Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GreenShift.
GreenShift’s patented and patent-pending corn oil extraction technologies enable GreenShift and its licensees to “drill” into the back-end of first generation corn ethanol plants to tap into a new reserve of inedible crude corn oil with an estimated industry-wide output of about 20 million barrels per year. This corn oil is a valuable second generation feedstock for use in the production of biodiesel and renewable diesel – advanced carbon-neutral liquid fuels, thereby enhancing total fuel production from corn and increasing ethanol plant profits.
“The issuance of the ‘858 Patent is a significant milestone for GreenShift and its stakeholders,” said Kevin Kreisler, GreenShift’s chairman and chief executive officer. “GreenShift has a substantial investment in the development of these important and timely new technologies. We look forward with great anticipation to working with the ethanol industry to press the evolution of corn ethanol forward into enhanced sustainability.”
The ‘858 Patent covers processes for recovering corn oil by evaporating, concentrating and mechanically processing thin stillage, a precursor to the distillers grain co-product of corn ethanol production (“DDGS”). Historically, ethanol production facilities have sold DDGS for animal feed, with all of the oil trapped inside. An estimated 3.4 million tons of corn oil passed unrecovered through the U.S. ethanol industry during 2008 alone.
GreenShift’s portfolio of patented and patent-pending extraction technologies can cost-effectively extract most of this corn oil, thereby increasing biofuel yields per bushel of corn by 7% while reducing the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (“GHG”) intensity of corn ethanol production by an estimated 21% and 29%, respectively.
David Winsness, GreenShift’s chief technology officer and co-inventor of GreenShift’s extraction technologies, added that: “There are no other technologies that have been developed for corn ethanol producers that begin to approach even a fraction of these results in the entire history of the ethanol industry. While this patent establishes our dominant ownership and technology leadership in corn oil extraction, we have many more patent applications pending that strengthen GreenShift’s position as a leading technology partner in the ethanol industry.”