Virent Startup Hydrogen From Biomass System

Virent Energy System today announced that it has successfully started up the first ever demonstration system capable of directly converting sugars and glycerin into power. The system, purchased by Madison, Gas & Electric (MGE), is based on Virent's patented Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) process, a carbon neutral, one-step method for on-demand production of hydrogen, natural gas and/or other fuel gases for distributed power systems from widely available renewable biomass.

The MGE system integrates a Virent APR System with a hydrogen/natural gas fueled generator set provided by City Engines. The system has demonstrated the ability to deliver a minimum of 10kW of environmentally friendly power to the MGE grid since its startup at the beginning of this year at Virent's location in Madison, Wisconsin. Virent was able to customize the gas production from its APR system to deliver desired compositions of hydrogen, natural gas and other fuel gases to the generator set. The system currently operates on pure glycerin. In the future, the Company will use a lower grade of glycerin that is generated as a byproduct of the biodiesel production process. Virent also intends to use sugar in the form of sorbitol and glucose as a feedstock for this initial unit. Over the next 18 months, this system will generate needed reliability and performance data for an APR system in a live environment.

Virent's APR system offers a cost effective method for low temperature production of hydrogen and/or fuel gas. By demonstrating the capability of localized, on-demand fuel delivery, the system is a promising first step to providing a reliable method for renewable fuel generation from a variety of widely available biomass sources. The APR systems can be designed to deliver predominantly hydrogen or alkanes (i.e. natural gas, ethane, butane and propane), or a customized blend of these fuels. Virent refers to these various biomass-generated streams as SupernaturalTM fuels. This system design will target a number of opportunities, ranging from stationary power systems, industrial hydrogen, renewable fuel stations or, longer term, mobile applications.

Dr. Randy Cortright, Chief Technical Officer and Founder of Virent, pointed to the extensive laboratory and design work that went into the system as the key to this successful startup. "This system is a validation of all of our work over the past couple of years on developing the APR process. We have told collaborators about the promise of this technology, and now we have a working system to demonstrate that APR is capable of becoming a viable production system. I believe this is a crucial first step to delivering a reliable, cost effective system for production of renewable fuels. Through our efforts on this system, we now have a much fuller understanding of the process that will lay the groundwork for even more compelling APR units in the near future."

Eric Apfelbach, Chief Executive Officer of Virent, commented on the performance of the system, "The level of excitement generated by this APR system start-up is very high because the system greatly exceeded all of our targets for power output and performance with an integrated ICE. It is very clear that the APR system represents a compelling option for cost effective, clean, distributed energy generation. With the global availability of CO2 neutral feedstocks and the ability to fuel microturbines, fuel cells, and ICEs in an unteathered fashion, the market opportunities are enormous. We are proud of Virent development team and appreciative of the support provided by MGE."




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