2^nd July 2013: Cellulac Limited, the industrial biochemicals company, announces the acquisition of Pursuit Marine Drive Limited, a subsidiary of Pursuit Dynamics PLC, subject to shareholder approval. The acquisition includes certain intellectual property rights, test equipment and commercial installations of industrial biochemical equipment in a number of US ethanol production plants. A separate agreement for the transfer of two EU FP7 projects in Biofuels and Algae has also been concluded.

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Gerard Brandon, CEO of Cellulac, commented;

“The acquisition of this portfolio of patents bolsters our business in a number of areas. It strengthens our IP around the pre-treatment of lignocellulose, a sustainable raw material used in second generation bio-production processes, for certain established specialty chemicals. When combined with Cellulac’s already strong expertise in enzyme and culture technology it increases the total soluble sugar yield and significantly reduces our production cost of sugars. It provides access to methods of lowering energy consumption by up to 50% for the production of lactate-specialty chemicals. Net, this IP allows Cellulac to realise a major breakthrough reduction in the commercial production cost of bio-lactates with fully–validated and operational commercial scale reactors.

We are now in a position to install two industrial size reactors and commence large scale production of bio-lactates from lignocellulosic materials at our own plant in 2014. Furthermore it provides a fast-track solution to low cost sugar extraction for our existing customer base and joint venture partners who wish to access a variety of second generation bio-chemicals with significant down-stream commercial value.”

Cellulac:

Cellulac converts lignocellulosic waste materials, such as wheat straw, spent brewery grains from beer production, dried distilled grains from ethanol production into high value, bio-chemicals, like Lactic Acid, PolyLactic Acid, Ethyl Lactate and Sodium Lactate. The use of sustainable and ubiquitous lignocellulosic waste as a starting material is emerging as a more environmentally acceptable and socially responsible second generation approach to the bio-production of chemical feedstocks such as lactates. With EU restrictions now in place for conversion of no more than 6.5% of land use for Bioenergy and Biochemical crops such as wheat, corn and sugar, our aim is to assist ethanol and other biochemical producers in their smooth transition from first generation crops to non-food crops and agricultural waste as starting materials.

Cellulac’s portfolio of patents provides an end to end second and third generation solution for biochemical and biomedical producers delivering low carbon, energy efficient, production of industrial biochemicals.