Our feedstock conditioning technologies are designed to increase the availability of fermentable sugars in whole corn and to enable diversification of our feedstock mix by accepting and processing corn cobs, stover and cellulosic biomass into additional biofuels. Key goals include increasing ethanol and extracted corn oil yields, decreasing raw material and utility costs, and improving the value of distillers grain. Achievement of these goals can be expected to enhance the profitability of corn ethanol production while decreasing sensitivity to commodity and financial risk. Our feedstock conditioning technologies include two primary processes: Desiccation and Cavitation.

Desiccation
Our desiccation process uses GreenShift’s Tornado Generator™ technology and compressed gases to subject targeted biomass to extreme thermal and pressure gradients in a series of enclosed cyclonic systems with no internal moving parts. These conditions almost instantly desiccate, shear and micronize cellulosic and other feedstocks and have been shown in prior experimentation with grain-based and cellulosic biomass products to produce particle sizes in the low micron levels and, in some cases, with altered molecular structures. The output is a prepared powder having a substantially smaller particle size as compared to conventionally milled products. The desiccation process renders the starch, hemicellulosic and lignocellulosic constituents far more available as compared to any known cost-effective and commercially available process technology.

This process has been extensively tested by name recognition global food and paper products companies. This is a unique process and apparatus that has demonstrated, on multiple occasions, to produce results that are not approachable or achievable by any other technology that we are aware of. Testing with this process is currently underway at Global Ethanol’s Riga, Michigan ethanol facility.

Cavitation
Our cavitation process relies on inertia and geometry to rapidly and cost-effectively generate cavitation to disintegrate targeted biomass for nominal electricity in a compact, continuous flow inline process. This process can be used in conjunction with a standard hydrolytic processes with enhanced reaction kinetics.

The output of the desiccation process is a large number of very small mixed particles that collectively provide a very large surface area for cavitation bubbles to take hold. Liquids that are subjected to pressures below the liquid’s saturated vapor pressure overcome the liquid’s intermolecular forces of cohesion and form cavities. These cavities, or cavitation bubbles, nearly instantly collapse due to the higher pressure of the surrounding liquid. This releases a significant amount of energy in the form of heat and an acoustic shock wave. Temperatures exceeding 5,000 Kelvin and pressures exceeding 50 atmospheres have been calculated. The effectiveness of cavitation increases with the presence of increased concentrations of smaller suspended solids because cavitation bubbles generally need a surface upon which they can nucleate. Prior studies have shown that cavitation can increase ethanol production yields by more than 10%.

We hold the right to test and use GreenShift's new patent-pending Cellulosic Oil™ process at our owned ethanol plants. We also intend to enter into GreenShift's standard license agreement for its patent-pending thin and whole stillage corn oil extraction technologies at our ethanol plants.

The Cellulosic Oil™ process has demonstrated (at bench scales) the ability to increase oil extraction yields to more than 10 gallons for every 100 gallons of corn ethanol produced. This technology has the potential to increase yields much higher by conditioning and converting cellulosic biomass (including cobs and stover), grains (such as rye and barely), grasses and other biomass into additional oil and feed products. This is achieved with a synergistic combination of feedstock conditioning and low-energy bioreactor technologies that are also designed to fully utilize existing infrastructure while reducing the energy needs of the ethanol production process.

Our energy and carbon mitigation technologies rely on the balanced and synergistic application of biological, chemical and physical processes to cost-effectively decarbonize ethanol production by converting carbon dioxide emissions into liquid fuels and other value-added products. These technologies have been demonstrated at bench scales and include our patented and patent-pending algae bioreactor technologies, and mixture of conventional and new patent-pending biological, chemical and physical processes designed to convert carbonaceous gases into liquid fuels and other value-added products.

EcoSystem's Algae Bioreactor
We hold the rights to GreenShift's patented and patent-pending bioreactor processes for use in our ethanol production facilities. This technology uses thermophillic cyanobacteria to consume carbon dioxide emissions. The organisms use the available carbon dioxide in the emissions and water to grow and give off oxygen and water vapor. The organisms also absorb nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. Once the organisms grow to maturity, they fall to the bottom of the bioreactor where they can be harvested for extraction and conversion into value added carbon neutral products.

We believe that our bioreactor technology has the potential to reduce the costs of and technical barriers to managing the flow resources into, through and out of the bioreactor in a compact and cost-efficient way as compared to other algae bioreactor technologies. Concentrated CO2 is captured and piped to the bioreactor. The sunlight is then collected using efficient parabolic mirrors that transfer and filter the light to a series of light pipes. The light pipes channel the light into the bioreactor structure where it is distributed and radiated throughout the structure using light panels. The organisms we use require as little as 1.5% direct light which means that our collected light can be distributed over a substantial surface area. Next, a growth media, such as polyester, is inserted between each lighting surface. Water, containing nutrients, continuously cascades down the growth media to facilitate the final required step for optimal growth. To harvest the new biomass, the flow rate of the water over the growth media is increased slightly to remove a portion of the algae, allowing a portion of algae to remain and to begin the next growth cycle. The removed algae is then collected and routed for conversion into value added carbon neutral products. Our technology is also very flexible and can accommodate a variety of algae types. High starch, high oil, or high cellulose algae can be grown in our bioreactor depending on output requirements.

Pilot Facility
GreenShift built a mobile demonstration platform for testing its bioreactor technologies to confirm existing benchtop results and to refine the design parameters for commercial-scale deployments of the technology at targeted locations. Through our license we GreenShift we have the right to use GreenShift's pilot bioreactor at our planned ethanol plants where concentrated supplies of carbon dioxide naturally emit and are relatively easy to capture and control.