Lignol expands intellectual property portfolio with new lignin patent awards
VANCOUVER, Oct. 25, 2012 /CNW/ - Lignol Energy Corporation (TSXV: LEC) ("LEC" or "the Company"), a leading technology company in the advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals sector, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Lignol Innovations Ltd. ("LIL") has received notice from the United States Patent and Trademark Office that it has recently issued a patent to LIL covering inventions made in the field of lignin composition of matter. This follows receipt of a recent patent issued in Canada covering similar claims related to the use of lignins in carbon fibre and brings to twelve the number of patents awarded to the Company to date, including five this calendar year.
These two recently issued patents cover inventions associated with the chemical properties and functional attributes of a wide range of lignin derivatives, and provide significant barriers to other players wishing to enter the field. Other patents awarded this year have provided added geographic coverage of Lignol's biorefining process technology-related patents in several countries.
"When producing next generation biofuels from renewable, non-food feedstocks like wood-chips, roughly 25% of the output is lignin. Companies can burn the lignin for its calorific value of approximately 5 cents a pound, or utilize Lignol's technology to realize values of 50 cents to $2 per pound as a substitute for certain petroleum-based inputs in a variety of applications, such as resins, binders, coatings, carbon fibre and thermoplastics", said Ross MacLachlan, President and CEO. "Our high performance lignin is proving to be well suited for many of these applications. One of the strengths of our patents which cover lignin composition of matter is that they are applicable irrespective of the process used for lignin production - our own or a competitor's. This creates commercial opportunities for Lignol not only from our own planned biorefineries, but also from licensing our technology to competitors and new entrants into the cellulosic ethanol and biorefining sector."
Lignol's growing intellectual property portfolio consists of more than ninety patent applications in various stages of prosecution of which twelve have been approved. The portfolio includes twenty-one patent families relating to processes, systems, the composition of lignin and other extractives, and lignin applications. Lignol also owns several trademarks and a significant body of trade secrets.
About Lignol Energy Corporation ("LEC")
LEC (TSXV: LEC) currently owns an 11.2% stake in Australian Renewable Fuels Ltd. (ASX: ARW), and upon completion of the planned acquisition of additional shares which are expected to close on or about November 6, 2012, will own 14.9% of the shares of ARW, and owns 100% of the issued and voting shares of Lignol Innovations Ltd. ("LIL"). LEC also intends to invest in, or otherwise obtain, equity interests in energy related projects which have synergies with its biorefining technology.
ARW is the largest biodiesel producer in Australia owning three plants with a total nameplate capacity of 150 million litres per annum. ARW's three plants were built at an aggregate cost of approximately A$150 million. ARW has made significant changes in recent years to become a cost effective producer of high quality biodiesel to address growing biofuel demand in the Australian market. More information on ARW can be found at their website; www.arfuels.com.au.
LIL is a leading technology company in the advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals sector undertaking the development of biorefining technologies for the production of advanced biofuels, including fuel-grade ethanol, and other renewable chemicals from nonfood cellulosic biomass feedstocks. LIL's modified solvent based pretreatment technology facilitates the rapid, high-yield conversion of cellulose to ethanol and the production of value-added biochemical co-products, including high purity HP-LTM lignins. HP-LTM lignin represents a new class of high purity lignin extractives (and their subsequent derivatives) which can be engineered to meet the chemical properties and functional requirements of a range of industrial applications that until now has not been possible with traditional lignin byproducts generated from other processes. LIL is executing on its development plan through strategic partnerships to further develop and integrate its core technologies on a commercial scale. For more information please visit LEC's website at www.lignol.ca.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Caution concerning forward-looking statements:
Certain statements contained in this document may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include, without limitation, statements or information about our ability to successfully prosecute and defend the claims contained in our various patents, our ability to complete the proposed acquisition of additional shares in ARW, our ability to continue as a going concern and to raise additional financing to fund the operations of LEC and LIL, the development status of LIL's fully integrated pilot-scale biorefinery in Burnaby, British Columbia, the planning and development of a commercial plant, LIL's ability to complete project deliverables which are funded in part by government agencies, obtaining strategic partnership investments and government funding for initial commercial projects. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or words and phrases that state or indicate that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.
Such statements or information reflect LEC's current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions including, without limitation, our ability to prosecute and defend LIL's various patents, establish the validity of LIL's technology at the fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant scale, LIL's ability to satisfy the conditions of existing government grants and to obtain new additional grants, LIL's ability to continue to finance our operations and to finance and complete the development of a commercial project, LIL's ability to work with Novozymes to produce cellulosic ethanol at production costs competitive with gasoline and corn ethanol, LIL's ability to develop products and to obtain off-take agreements, our ability to obtain requisite regulatory approvals and our ability to enter into agreements with strategic partners on terms acceptable to us, the inability to influence the strategy, operations and financial performance of Australian Renewable Fuels ("ARW"), the reliance on publically available information of ARW in LEC's evaluation of its acquisition of shares in ARW, the potential inability to divest the ARW ordinary shares due to modest trading volumes, the cost of future ARW capital investment, the fluctuation of biodiesel and feedstock on ARW, the effect on ARW of changes in government policy relating to the environment, and incentives for renewable fuels. Many other factors could also cause LEC's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information, including among other things, the technological challenges that remain to be surpassed in obtaining the necessary operating data from LIL's fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant that is required prior to completing the next scale-up of the technology, financial market conditions which will impact our ability to finance our operations and to finance the construction and operation of a commercial plant, the price of gasoline and demand for ethanol, the market pricing and demand for renewable chemicals, risks relating to the protection of LIL's core technology from infringement and those risk factors which are discussed elsewhere in documents that LEC files from time to time with securities regulatory authorities. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements or information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Except as required by law, LEC expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements and information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. All written and oral forward-looking statements and information attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements.
SOURCE: Lignol Energy Corporation
For further information:
contact:
Lignol Energy Corporation
David Turner
Chief Financial Officer
Tel: 604-453-1241
Email: [email protected]
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