Terrabon to build Texas-based biofuels plant

Pipeline & Gas Journal, June, 2008

Terrabon, L.L.C. has broken ground on a biofuels conversion facility in Bryan, TX that will test the scaled-up, commercial feasibility of its MixAlco[TM] technology, which converts nonfood biomass into chemicals that can be processed into ethanol and renewable gasoline fuels.

The new plant, which is expected to be operational by September, will have a loading capacity of 400 dry tons of biomass, which equates to a loading rate of five dry tons per day. Sorghum will be the primary feedstock with the objective of producing organic salts and converting them to ketones. Plans call for the process to run in two separate cycles, each about 80 days in duration.

The MixAlco technology has been developed over the last 15 years by Dr. Mark 32 Holtzapple, professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Cesar B. Granda, Research Engineer, at Texas A&M University and has spawned the development of two additional products, SoluPro[TM] and AdVE. Terrabon has been granted worldwide licenses from The Texas A&M University System for all three products.