Synthenol Energy Corporation is a company with operational and research headquarters based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The company will be licensing its proprietary catalyst technology to enable fuel and chemical producers to use biomass or natural gas to provide clean, sustainable, high value transportation fuels and chemicals. By using low-cost agricultural and municipal wastes in the place of crude oil, these fuels and chemicals can be offered at competitive prices.

Acquisition

In 2010, Synthenol acquired from their holding company, Syntec Biofuel Inc, a proprietary thermo-chemical catalyst process to convert renewable cellulosic biomass, such as wood waste, agricultural waste and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), into a sulfur-free mixed alcohol comprising ethanol, methanol, propanol and butanol by way of gasification. Synthenol’s technology has flexibility as it also allows the conversion of natural gas and biogas into these same four alcohols The company’s initial catalyst development using non-precious metals started in early 2001 and the first patent was approved in 2008. A second international patent is now pending and is based on an enhanced base metal catalyst process. Using Synthenol’s process, the estimated cost of producing a gallon of alcohol/fuel from biomass is between $0.74 and $1.04 a gallon depending on the feedstock.

Current Status

As part of its continuing product development, Synthenol has recently entered into dialogue with the University of British Columbia to continue testing the effect of certain contaminants on the catalyst and improve overall efficiencies and quantify stability. The company is led by a group of professionals with extensive expertise and in-depth knowledge of the chemical/technical biofuels industry; its R&D team consists of four PhDs., all with deep thermo-chemical, gasification and catalysis backgrounds and qualifications.

Additionally, Synthenol is planning its first plant production of its alcohol at the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) near Chicago, IL. GTI is a testing center for the oil and gas industry and offers a wide range of apparatus for engineering evaluation and experimentation. The objective of testing the catalyst at GTI is to determine the economic viability and scalability for constructing a liquid fuel and chemical plant using Natural Gas.

As a catalyst technology company specializing in the chemical fuel industry, Synthenol have a patent pending non-sulfur catalyst and process that converts syngas, into mixed alcohols: ethanol, methanol, propanol and butanol. These alcohols are used in the transportation, plastics and chemicals industries. Syngas is generated from waste wood and agricultural waste, cellulosic biomass, municipal solid waste (MSW) or natural gas.

Catalysts have been typically used in the chemical and fuel industry to react with natural gas to produce a single product such as methanol or ammonia. Over the past 15 years there has been a push to produce alternative fuels to replace fossil fuel and many companies are now producing ethanol by fermenting corn and sugar cane which is regarded as 1st generation technology.

However, new companies are emerging and are now developing 2nd generation technologies to convert cellulosic biomass into biofuel and many are following the fermentation route of converting the sugar in biomass into ethanol.

Synthenol’s technology is 2nd generation and uses syngas which is generated by gasifying biomass. Syngas is comprised of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. After cleaning, the syngas is reacted with the company’s catalyst to produce not only ethanol but also methanol, butanol and propanol.

Synthenol is pleased to be viewed as a provider of clean energy and chemicals based on their process using sustainable biomass. The company believes its advanced thermo-chemical process is more efficient and economically viable than current ethanol production methods and has the flexibility to accommodate virtually any biomass. This means that Synthenol’s biofuels can be produced with zero impact on food resources, agricultural production while achieving a very low carbon intensity value.

Our catalyst can also produce mixed alcohols from natural gas which is far cleaner than using crude oil for fuels and chemicals. The methodology of producing alcohols from natural gas is the same process used by Methanex, B.P., Mitsui and others to produce the majority of the world’s methanol.