Alliance BioEnergy Plus secures sublicense agreement for cellulose-to-sugar conversion technology

Alliance BioEnergy Plus has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, AMG Energy Group, has entered into a sublicensing agreement with California-based Earth's Renewable Energy.

The sublicense agreement permits Earth's Renewable Energy to use the company's patented cellulose to sugar (CTS) technology at a soon-to-be-built plant in Bakersfield, California.

Alliance BioEnergy Plus is a publicly traded company focusing on the commercialisation and licensing of a patented cellulose conversion technology.

The single process train will be capable of processing 250 tonnes per day of biomass, such as almond and pistachio trees and their hulls, which will be supplied under contract by a $4 billion private agricultural conglomerate in California.

The plant also has an offtake agreement with Chem-Energy, who will utilise the C5/C6 sugar mix and pure lignin to create fine chemicals and other high value bio-products. As additional feedstocks become available, the plant will expand processing to 1,000 tonnes per day.

The sublicense fee paid to AMG Energy Group is $1.25 million (€1.10m) plus 5% of ongoing gross revenue derived from the CTS process. The cash portion of the fee will be paid in instalments, with the initial payment made within the next 30 days, providing the Company with an immediate capital infusion and a longer-term revenue source.

"We are excited to take this step forward and to secure a sublicensing agreement that will generate both near and long term revenue for our company, while further validating our technology as the industry standard for the economic production of energy efficient bio-products," said Daniel de Liege, CEO, Alliance BioEnergy Plus.

He added: "We look forward to delivering the technology once their plant is ready and to work with the team at Earth's Renewable Energy to ramp up processing and to deliver high quality materials to our commercialisation partners.

"We are pleased to be partnering with AMG Energy and Alliance for the production of more environmentally friendly bio-products," said Katherine Fabris, president of Earth's Renewable Energy.

Fabris added: "We identified their technology as the best in the industry from both a cost and production perspective, and look forward to a productive long-term relationship."

'Diversified business development'

Funding for the soon-to-be-built plant in Bakersfield will be provided by Twin Rivers Group, a diversified business development firm with offices in Texas and Kansas and a strong concentration in the renewable energy space. 

Twin Rivers Group has teamed up with Earth's Renewable Energy to develop multiple processing facilities deploying a patented proprietary processing technology under a licensing agreement with AMG Energy Group.

Once the Bakersfield plant is operational, there are plans to build three additional plants and further expand processing.

The company has done extensive testing on the almond and pistachio feedstocks at its Ek Laboratories in Longwood, Florida. Initial tests show that this feedstock performs better than expected and converts quickly and easily in the CTS process.

While licensing is a part of the Alliance business plan and brings the company immediate revenue, Alliance continues to work toward closing on its own bioethanol plant through subsidiary Alliance Bio-Products, and expects to be operational in its retrofitted facility by mid-2018.