It's leveraging on Singapore's access to capital markets, resource-rich sites
Chen Huifen, Business Times 30 Jun 08;
SINGAPORE has attracted renewable energy company Pure Power Global to set up base here. That's despite a relative lack of biomass, or organic material that can be used as fuel, here.
The New Zealand-originated firm plans to drive its future acquisitions in renewable energy technologies from Singapore, leveraging on the Republic's access to capital markets and resource-rich sites that could be potential sources of feedstocks.
'While the demand for renewable energy will continue to be very strong in the Americas and in Europe, we believe that the bulk of future demand, as well as the biomass resources to supply that demand, will come from Asia,' said Pure Power chairman and chief executive David Milroy. 'Singapore is an excellent platform from which to address those markets.'
Backed by a group of high net worth individuals, Pure Power is a vertically integrated firm that creates and invests in technologies that may be used to produce biofuels, bioproducts and other forms of sustainable energy.
It recently acquired New Zealand-based BioJoule Limited for US$5.5 million, giving it full ownership of a proprietary technology that can convert hardwood and softwood biomass into natural lignin, bioethanol and xylose.
Lignin is an organic polymer that can be a substitute for the fossil-fuel-derived phenol, a building block in cosmetics, while xylose is a raw material for sugar substitute xylitol.
'Most, if not all, other technologies used to process woody biomass destroy or degrade the natural lignin, which gives trees their rigidity, in order to isolate the celluloses and hemicelluloses that can be fermented into ethanol,' explained Mr Milroy. 'As lignin makes up 40-50 per cent of the biomass resource, other processes are highly inefficient.
'The BioJoule process is unique in that it preserves and recovers the natural lignin, which can then be used to make hundreds of different bioproducts.'
Pure Power also owns a 19.9 per cent interest in Aquaflow Bionomic Corp, for which it paid US$2.5 million in July last year. The company has derived a method to harvest commercial quantities of wild micro-algae from sewage treatment oxidation ponds, and convert such algae biomass into what it calls 'biocrude' or renewable petroleum.
Biocrude can then be processed into renewable transportation fuels such as biodiesel and bio-jet fuel.
While traditional algae harvesting and conversion methods only extract the lipid content of algae, Pure Power claims that its technology can convert up to 100 per cent of the algal biomass into biocrude.
Its technology also churns out nutrient-rich waste from which fertilisers can be made.
And because it harvests wild algae from existing natural water catchment areas instead of culturing a single specie algae in a highly controlled environment, as with conventional methods, its process is said to entail lower set-up costs and smaller scale preparation.
The two methods are still undergoing commercial scale development, but Pure Power expects to roll out market applications within six to 18 months.
Large-scale manufacturing is likely to be close to feedstocks such as biomass resources, to cut down on the reliance on transport fuels.
'We are working aggressively to bring our biomass and renewable energy technologies to market and expect to begin producing revenues in 2009,' said Mr Milroy.
In the meantime, the company continues to be on the hunt for other technologies in renewable energy. It is negotiating to acquire or license innovations for the manufacturing of wind turbines, as well as for producing renewable energy from waves and marine currents.
