THE PROBLEM: The world seeks new sources of cleaner energy as a means to mitigate: (i) diminishing fossil fuel reserves, (ii) the burning of coal (iii) air and ground water pollution and (iv) ever growing waste streams from animal, agricultural and human waste streams.

THE CHALLENGE: Biomass comes in many forms. It can be left alone to rot to generate methane a gas that is 21 times more harmful to the global warming than CO₂ and leach harmful compounds into ground water OR it can be processed into a biofuel and used as part of the solution to global environmental damage.  In global warming considerations, the impact of CO2 and methane emissions which are produced by unused biomass has largely been ignored.  The decomposition of dead plant material results in production of CO2 and methane (GHG’s) which are constantly being added into the global atmosphere.

THE SOLUTION: Researchers at PCS Technologies Inc. have developed a process to convert organic material into a solid biofuel through a hydrothermal polymerization process.   The resulting biofuel is a high energy substitute for coal that will mitigate the emission of fossil-fuel greenhouse gases.  The process uses a patented catalyst to allow the reaction to occur at temperatures at 220 - 240°C. Hydro-Thermal Polymerization (HTP) is a wet process where the feedstock is processed in an aqueous solution.  Using a wet process eliminates the costly feedstock drying that is typical in torrifaction processes.