Argonne National Lab, Nalco ink technology license agreement

Ethanol Producer Magazine By Bryan Sims March 25, 2011 The U.S. DOE's Argonne National Laboratory and industrial processing firm Nalco Co. struck a licensing agreement for a novel electrodeionization technology that can be integrated into biorefineries to convert biomass into fuels and chemicals. According to Seth Snyder, Argonne biochemical engineer whose group led the development of the technology, the patented separation technique allows for the deionizing, or the continuous removal, of charged products like organic acids, such as succinic acid or lactic acid, from aqueous streams and eliminates the requirement to continuously add neutralizing agents like lime. This, Snyder said, is a dramatic improvement over conventional bioprocessing technologies that typically require significant capital expenditure on energy-intensive steps to recover bioproducts, while generating large volumes of waste streams. Read more