tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63236497528534911752024-03-05T22:03:32.771+00:00 The Bionic Group Records Following ground breaking Bionic technologies to commercializationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-60142048500647975442014-05-19T16:46:00.000+00:002014-05-28T10:01:22.364+00:00Bionic µfuel technology unlocks potential of Lignin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As early as 2009 experiments have been conducted using pure lignin as a sample feedstock for Bionic's µfuel technology. A detailed report about the laboratory level tests has been published by a scientific partner, Erik Karlsen, in a Danish chemical journal. An English translation can be downloaded from Bionic servers: <a href="http://tiny.cc/lignintest" target="_blank">"From Lignin to Oil by Microwaves"</a>.<br />
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The central finding from the above report: the studied liquid product phase consisted of more than 85% phenols and still more than 75% methoxy phenols. This result suggests<b> a significantly more homogeneous liquid phase from the Bionic µfuel process</b> than reported so far in any other available paper on Lignin treatment with various (catalytic) pyrolysis methods. Commonly extremely heterogeneous combinations of complex aromatic molecules are found where good yields of highly homogeneous chemical substances are necessary for further conversion or processing into the final lignin derived building blocks which can economically serve as the raw material for future bioplastics like novel polyesters.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bionic µfuel Laboratory Reactor used for Lignin testing</td></tr>
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The conversion of Lignin into higher value products is the primary challenge for the global cellulose and wood processing industries. Lignin alone makes up a share of 25-30 wt.% of all processed dry wood for cellulose and hemicellulose pulp extraction which is later used for paper, fiber and bioethanol production.<br />
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A lot more about the composition and properties of wood can be found at the excellent<a href="http://www.paperonweb.com/wood.htm"> Pulp & Paper Resource & Information Site</a>.<br />
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Despite billions of R&D money spent to date convincing pathways for lignin upgrading have yet to be identified. Scientific work usually labels the pyrolysis of lignin as highly promising for the building blocks of a future biochemical industry, but no true break throughs for commercial application are reported. Thus, enormous quantities of high quality lignin, estimated at more than 50M tons/year are still seen as a waste product and used primarily as a solid fuel for conventional industrial boilers.<br />
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<a href="http://www.specialchem4coatings.com/news-trends/displaynews.aspx?id=19891">A Frost & Sullivan study focusing on the commercial potential of lignin</a> predicts it will become the most important natural aromatic raw material for future biochemicals with a combined market potential of more than USD 130 Billion at current market conditions.<br />
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Being the only natural and renewable source of aromatic compounds, lignin is one of the three major components of plant cell walls which together make up 90% of the cells biomass. Possible sources are wood, wheat and rice straw and grasses.<br />
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Currently Bionic is embarking on an extensive test program with major industry players to transform the promising lab results into a successful industrial application using the Bionic µfuel range of microwave conversion reactors.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-35636186184789844102014-03-10T15:06:00.002+00:002014-05-28T10:11:21.972+00:00Bionic µfuel modular design proves advantageous<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">mf480 reactor details</td></tr>
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Bionic µfuel reactor and plant designs have come a long way over the recent 10 years of intense R&D work in the development labs. Starting from the drawing board and moving on to CAD workstations, performing endless process simulations in the technology lab and later on the first continuous pilot, all the way to the current mf60 prototype plants many details where refined and fine tuned literally thousands of times. During all that time, however, one fundamental cornerstone of Bionic's design principles was never questioned: the extremely modular design utilizing only the most tested, most proven assembly parts and modules available preferably off the shelf. This principle effectively differentiates <b>Bionic's µfuel technology</b> from practically all comparable technology designs out there.</div>
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For many years the huge advantages of such a design approach for on time project delivery, operational stability, easy scaling of plant size and ultimately capital and operational expenditure could only be explained theoretically.</div>
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This has changed with the recent mf60 commercial demonstrator now in prototype testing for something over 7 months, preparing for a first continuous 250 hour run coming up around the corner. We finally have plenty of hard evidence supporting the mantra of stubbornly insisting on uncompromising modularity. During the prototype testing period dozens of small changes and adjustments have been incorporated, often completed in a few hours. And even the <a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-bionicfuel-mf60-demonstrator.html">major mf60 redesign described in this article</a> required a suspension of test operations for barely 3 weeks.<br />
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Following the Bionic scaling philosophy the mf60 is nothing else than a down-scaled mf480, the latter being the bionicfuel reference reactor type for standard commercial plants. However large an individual plant might get, it will be built around clustered sets of always the same mf480 reactor units and the mf480 unit can even be temporarily reduced to around half its specified capacity with a corresponding reduction in microwave units. The consequences of this concept for the early commercial roll out are enormous.<br />
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Instead of monolithic, untested conversion plants budgeted at several hundred million USD, Bionic can offer clients a project approach incorporating risk management via a well controlled scale up process. Each reactor can be factory assembled, tested and certified against specifications even before leaving the manufacturer site. After shipping the installation process on site is a matter of weeks before final client acceptance can begin.<br />
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A factory and on-site certified single reactor system can then be rapidly upgraded by simply bringing in more of the identical reactor units combining them with standard feedstock preparation and product upgrading equipment. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-91824327987401236742014-03-10T14:59:00.001+00:002014-04-08T15:59:52.108+00:00Bionic's organic fertilizer and soil enhancer resembles Terra Preta<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Many exciting things happened at the Bionic Group over the course of 2013, but one development is clearly standing out: the development of the Bionic Bio-Elite Carbon Plus production system. I have written here before about<a href="http://bionic-enterprises.com/healthy-soil-is-bionics-focal-point-for-2013/" title="Healthy soil is Bionic’s focal point for 2013"> the Bio-Elite<sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">TM</span> </sup>organic fertilizer</a> licensed by Bionic Lab in Germany. Now Bionic has made the already excellent product even greater by integrating the Bionic char product directly into the Bio-Elite production process.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bionic µsoil production process</td></tr>
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The result is a soil improvement product of a fundamentally new quality. Not only an organic replacement for standard synthetic fertilizers, not only a supply for all required micro nutrients, but also a long term activator of healthy top soil development maintaining sufficient levels of carbon for a more natural plant growth. Thus, Bionic has created a contemporary descendant of the supposedly mysterious Terra Preta soil discovered by archaeologists in the Amazon region of Brazil.<br />
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While the bionicfuel process delivers a bio-char product with outstanding capabilities, this product is completely sterilized during production. Such a microwave sterilization effectively eliminates any danger of infecting one’s soil with pathogenic micro-organisms. However, it also takes time a lot of time afterwards for the bio-char to be settled again by healthy microbes. Bionic’s new process effectively accelerates such a natural soil fertilization by processing the char with the most effective micro organisms available. Subsequently the highly effective Bio-Elite organic fermentation process integrates the top soil forming char properties with the highly effective plant nutrition capabilities of an advanced organic fertilizer production systems. The result is <strong>Bionic µsoil</strong>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fermentation process is almost complete</td></tr>
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It takes just 50 days in one of the Bionic licensed fertilizer plants to process the final product beginning to end. A process that would take nature many years to complete unassisted.<br />
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Over the recent months Bionic has developed a business model for a franchise system concentrated on the production of its new fully organic soil enhancer. Franchise partners will typically operate their own plant and take care of the acquisition of the raw materials waste biomass and animal manure. Initial interest is specifically high from large commercial scale animal husbandry operations like poultry and pig farms.<br />
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All product not used internally in the franchise partner’s own farming operation will be marketed via a joint whole sale sale platform addressing garden centers, hardware stores and municipal gardening departments. An online platform will also be established as an additional sales channel for direct orders by individual commercial and private customers.<br />
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In December 2013 a German State Government has taken a preliminary decision to substantially support Bionic’s initial reference plant under an economic development program. Constructed during 2014 in collaboration with Bionic’s prime manufacturer SMERAL as from Brno in the Czech Republic, the plant will later serve for R&D, training and demonstrations within the franchise system.<br />
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The advantages of the <strong>Bionic µsoil</strong> system are many. It is not only a new organic fertilizer of outstanding quality which is completely carbon neutral. It is also a solution to the serious manure problems of animal mass husbandry, the long underestimated health hazards of common biogas plants deriving from dangerously infested residues and the proper disposal of food waste. All these categories of waste become constantly more and more regulated which has heavily increased cost for the affected businesses. Bionic is now effectively offering a way to reverse this development by eliminating the high cost by converting the issue into a profitable business option for new SME businesses.<br />
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<a href="http://bionic-enterprises.com/innovative-organic-fertilizer/">Innovative organic fertilizer and soil conditioner</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-77321286639800036722014-03-03T13:45:00.000+00:002014-03-10T15:01:57.739+00:00More rigorous testing upcoming for the bionicfuel mf60 prototype<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Since the switch has been turned for the first time in August 2013 <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6323649752853491175&pli=1#editor/target=post;postID=2466939008870096146;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=4;src=postname" target="_blank">starting up the mf60 commercial demonstrator</a> at the premises of SMERAL in Brno the engineers performed endless test runs while improving and fixing numerous design and engineering details.<br />
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Simply put, they where doing exactly what a prototype is meant to be used for: trial, error detection and correction... Preparing a rock solid processing core for serial production that is ready for 24/7 hard core operation when it reaches a production site for installation. Most fixes required just from a couple of hours to a day or two.
But eventually in early January 2014 careful review of collected test data resulted in the decision to proceed with a major redesign of the vapor off-take from the main reactor vessel, an effort which would interrupt test operations and scheduled demonstrations for several weeks. <br />
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SMERAL engineers did a great job in preparing and implementing the revised design in only 3 weeks. The almost finished result can be seen below:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">redesigned mf60 reactor unit</td></tr>
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The new design results in a significantly lower height, making the reactor more robust and energy efficient. Durability will be further improved by repositioning the microwave units for optimized cooling.<br />
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Once all measures are completed, a continuous test run for a minimum of 10 days is scheduled which will be monitored by an independent certification agency. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-56108283856677888052013-12-08T16:33:00.001+00:002014-04-20T11:55:10.915+00:00The official bionicfuel video... The Past - The Present - The Future<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-60218708110177843372013-11-20T14:39:00.000+00:002013-11-20T14:39:14.850+00:00One month after the bionicfuel mf60d went public...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's been hectic times for everyone at Bionic ever since the bionicfuel mf60 experienced its world premier at the industry fair at Brno last month. While a demonstration reactor was on exhibition at the booth on the fairgrounds, a fully functional unit was available for demonstrations at the test location within the SMERAL factory premises.<br />
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The most impressive stream of high profile and expert visitors has in fact not ended with the fair, where the bionicfuel Technology was honored with a prestigious award "Innovative Product of the Year 2013" delivered by the Industry Minister himself. We experience an unexpected ongoing flood of interest from around the world in a visit to the demonstration plant. The waiting list is so long that any end is simply out of sight...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Innovative Product of the Year 2013 awarded by the Industry Minister</td></tr>
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Another outcome of the last few weeks is quite a number of new opportunities for far reaching cooperation and project delivery agreements. We are confident, that we can publish a lot of exciting news over the coming weeks and months. The commercialization of the technology has truly begun.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-24669390088700961462013-08-23T16:29:00.000+00:002013-09-11T22:05:19.015+00:00Bionic µBTL mf60d demonstrator entered test phase<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Earlier this week the mf60d commercial demonstrator has been switched on for the first time, a success made possible by the excellent collaboration between Bionic R&D and its prime manufacturer SMERAL s.a. Brno in the Czech Republic.<o:p></o:p><br />
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See this <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=702975169729231&set=a.378957555464329.107056.378949938798424&type=1">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/microfuel">Bionic Laboratories BLG GmbH</a>.<br />
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A few weeks of rigorous testing and adjustments have been kicked off. This phase includes a formal certification process by independent experts. Presentations for selected clients will commence afterwards.<br />
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Full public announcements can be expected in the first half of October.</div>
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Congratulations to everyone working hard to make this a success...
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An operational mf60D complete with 2 condensers<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-63369417293075276362013-07-08T15:09:00.001+00:002013-07-08T16:14:25.550+00:00Bionic history flash back: "Biomass to Liquid becomes reality"In February 2009 Bionic published a video about the first continuous pilot of the microfuel technology. As we are about to get the first commercial prototype ready for certification it is time to look back. Soon the many lessons learned from that first pilot will become known to the interested public followers. The new MF60D release candidate contains several thousand of changes compared to the machine in the video and was actually redesigned from ground up. <br />
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<script src="//platform.linkedin.com/in.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="IN/Share"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-19000938907647967212013-06-26T12:51:00.000+00:002013-07-11T10:58:37.800+00:00The new Bionic µBTL MF60D entered the assembly phase<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It has been some time since we last reported on the latest in Bionic's microfuel development. But finally the new downsized fully <a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-bionic-microfuel-reactor-type.html" target="_blank">functional µBTL MF60D demonstrator announced in February</a> is approaching completion. A moment we all are very excited about.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeq-RQ0NwztkCwkibJ4QjbEz7liHryEjaBJk__UaRKu_3yE5nPOonXz4j5dnRKowG1bd4Ai-CiLJjDp-3gG3Futbep-q9z0PU24In0eTWMn8pv09LPqVRe2BBitQuHKrfI8rBkR3d7NthP/s1600/MF60D+assembled+%2528CAD%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeq-RQ0NwztkCwkibJ4QjbEz7liHryEjaBJk__UaRKu_3yE5nPOonXz4j5dnRKowG1bd4Ai-CiLJjDp-3gG3Futbep-q9z0PU24In0eTWMn8pv09LPqVRe2BBitQuHKrfI8rBkR3d7NthP/s400/MF60D+assembled+%2528CAD%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MF60D assembled without microwave units (CAD)</td></tr>
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We are now able to share a couple of quite impressive pictures. Here are all of all the mechanical parts (still without Bionic's microwave technology and electronic control modules) while awaiting assembly.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlT5hqs0DugAN2QVi2yBa6wx4bBC4yknwvjXAwIUheEz3FCUtcUrzUmFD9AjnOGiE8yll94CIX0D4cyLbBHXABvYgUrtVJCzb3aHdifzbN8GnP_chFWEs9NJ6RA7NKA-UK4Ef7vz_UNFI0/s1600/P1150326m.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Bionic microfuel demonstrator MF60D ready for assembly" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlT5hqs0DugAN2QVi2yBa6wx4bBC4yknwvjXAwIUheEz3FCUtcUrzUmFD9AjnOGiE8yll94CIX0D4cyLbBHXABvYgUrtVJCzb3aHdifzbN8GnP_chFWEs9NJ6RA7NKA-UK4Ef7vz_UNFI0/s400/P1150326m.JPG" title="MF60D awaiting assembly (from top)" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MF60D (top view) awaiting assembly</td></tr>
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The top down view gives an excellent perspective on what the completed assembly will look like from the inside. The rotational reactor vessel itself can be seen at the top left side with condenser parts, piping and supporting equipment positioned to the right of it.<br />
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The following picture adds the usual view providing a better understanding for the dimensions and actual size of the modules and the completed assembly. As explained before, the reactor unit and all the peripheral modules will later be installed in several standard size container frames, some stacked in two storey configurations.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF3TGu-2lDsO_gTPdReEp9e20_rhT_xEjmuNUCoFMLqR3aWOkPRbwO8h4zeuqVMCK5oPBREMYze8B0NDJAhFShho9tnMV35YqetT85QRgQux-OOKQ935VLzLZexTNVix1pXs51f6nkttq7/s1600/P1150331m.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF3TGu-2lDsO_gTPdReEp9e20_rhT_xEjmuNUCoFMLqR3aWOkPRbwO8h4zeuqVMCK5oPBREMYze8B0NDJAhFShho9tnMV35YqetT85QRgQux-OOKQ935VLzLZexTNVix1pXs51f6nkttq7/s400/P1150331m.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MF60D awaiting assembly</td></tr>
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Final assembly has started at the SMERAL s.r.o. production site in Brno (Czech Republic). Subsequently the microwave and electronic control units built directly at Bionic Laboratories BLG GmbH (Germany) will be added and the completed MF60D reactor unit will be furnished with some basic preprocessing equipment for testing. <br />
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<img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEsxpSh3K0IsNM0r7x37oOfyxB1i__87VLZr8Db1F85qdtBJHlj9h9ZKS0pTVPPa8w-9xasmF8Ljxe2NITlmZXKReTDlPPi_U7JZr9ie_n4g2yiavHEiQBIFSmi8PngolN6kFaHg6FXZ5/s320/MF60D+during+assembly+%25281024x768%2529.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Final assembly is under way at the Bionic manufacturerer<br />SMERAL s.r.o. Brno, Czech Rebulic</span></div>
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After some initial test runs formal certification by the German technical verification agency TUEV will commence. Once finalized we will have a thorough look at a very long waiting list for demonstration visit requests...<br />
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<a href="http://tiny.cc/mf60assembly" target="_blank">The most recent published pictures documenting the MF60D assembly progress</a> can always be found first on the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/microfuel" target="_blank">Bionic Laboratories Facebook Page</a>.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-13336390049503902472013-03-24T18:20:00.000+00:002013-07-06T10:20:37.077+00:00Construction of the first Bionic µBTL MF60D reactor on schedule<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Manufacturing of <a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-bionic-microfuel-reactor-type.html" target="_blank">the recently announced new Bionic mf60 reactor series</a> is coming along as planned. Watch the short movie of the production process to see the high level of precision and quality that goes into this piece of equipment. It will be used for both, µBTL (biomass-to-liquid) and µWTL (waste-to-liquid) configurations and in addition, in a mobile configuration, for specialty applications like soil decontamination and clean up of oil spills.<br />
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A ship based version is also under consideration for a planned ambitious environmental project designed to clean up floating islands of plastic waste putting maritime life in great danger. <br />
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A high resolution version of this movie can be viewed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GYAlIrj9GI" target="_blank">here directly on Youtube</a>.<br />
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The movie shows how high quality German design is <a href="http://www.smeral.cz/" target="_blank">manufactured at one of the oldest Czech machine builders</a>, renown for its dedication to quality. This reactor is built to last for decades and is designed to undergo easy upgrades when more advanced microwave technology becomes available. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-70173076601286241472013-03-20T14:34:00.001+00:002013-03-26T14:21:23.538+00:00Jatropha for Dummies - Part 3 - The Farming<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We have seen in the last segment of this series: <a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2013/02/jatropha-for-dummies-part-2-future-is.html" target="_blank">Jatropha has a future which will be non-toxic</a>. I pointed out that high yielding planting material will become available rather sooner than later to make JcL ready for commercial success as a feedstock for high revenue <b>energy products</b> and <b>animal feed</b>. But with the right planting material available, what will the ideal farm look like when we get there?<br />
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Looking for the proper farming concepts we should first understand that JcL is a tree crop (or rather a bush or shrub). Traditionally it was planted in hedges which primarily had a living fence function to separate cattle from farmed fields. Obviously Jatropha was doing well in such a planting pattern where mono cropping is not an issue which in JcL brings along problems like heavy pest attacks and scarcity of water and nutrients. Therefore the good old hedges planted alongside roads and fields with superior modern planting material can become a great way for the traditional small African farmer to make himself some extra income while fully sticking to his original farming practices.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAE9_hdew03-xjMhhWbhIYUN6mbG7ue2mmF-I-NdcXUoKfvRmtL1gYXhaZu13jRVQq3ZRHk7dNB5zZsuaoZj7egXYkSI3V30jzChaDXAb6151DPHRUNhdCAvcBWfHGq_L2doQ5nclzB67J/s1600/Alleys+prepared+for+planting+%2528800x600%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAE9_hdew03-xjMhhWbhIYUN6mbG7ue2mmF-I-NdcXUoKfvRmtL1gYXhaZu13jRVQq3ZRHk7dNB5zZsuaoZj7egXYkSI3V30jzChaDXAb6151DPHRUNhdCAvcBWfHGq_L2doQ5nclzB67J/s320/Alleys+prepared+for+planting+%2528800x600%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freshly pruned JcL double alleys</td></tr>
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But, as a completely different playing field we also have to look deeper into large scale commercial farming. At Bionic Palm we have run an extensive Jatropha test farming project on more than 100 ha for many years to study the best agronomic methods. Very early we understood that true sustainability can never be accomplished with a mono cropping system. Thus, over a series of intermediary steps, we arrived at our optimal solution: double alleys with a minimum of 10 m in between for permanent intercropping with the most convenient annual crops.<br />
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The double alley approach has numerous advantages especially in semi arid climates. The hedges offer protection from soil erosion through wind and rain. They can also improve soil quality in many ways operating as a nutrient pump from deeper levels, adding carbon to the soil by shedding their leaves and by supporting and maintaining microorganisms added to the soil like mycorrhiza.<br />
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If irrigation is part of the farming strategy permanent piping can be installed in between the double hedges giving them good protection.<br />
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While many annual crops (maize, soy, beans, ground nut just to name a few) can be planted together with JcL hedges we actually prefer high value vegetable crops in combination with a no-till system, be it glyphosate (round-up) or cover crop based. Only these crops really bring the enormous profitability potential of an agroforestry concept built on non-toxic JcL backbones into reality.<br />
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Adding a comprehensive soil development and management concept utilizing biochar and organic fertilizer can help turning very difficult environmental conditions like in former mining areas around. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-83512167535415838652013-03-01T12:11:00.000+00:002013-03-11T13:17:01.253+00:00Bionic µCTL brings microwaves to coal liquefaction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For the last few years Bionic has researched the possibilities of a <b>fundamental change to the way coal liquefaction (CTL)</b> is understood and has been done until today. The application of microwaves to the almost one hundred years old process of carbon hydrogenation with high pressure and a catalyst is making that change a reality. The basic process of direct coal-to-liquid conversion has been discovered first by the German scientist Friedrich Bergius, who received the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1931. The industrial application of the Bergius process supplied the German airforce during WW2 almost exclusively with much needed quality fuel from 1941.<br />
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Following is a most simple sketch of the Bergius-Pier process illustrating the logical lay out of the original coal liquefaction plants:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ApomgjM8bBeknfaRsVbvyAntTMbYzfEydF5k9mOCuHYt8XaT31g77vPdp2IWZtxvqWpnZOuivn5ABB4w45kD_GBBBAuTQRaRQIZSxyJddD-k7q0Ny4f0fgUKKk1N5WcB8NzzIari_-LN/s1600/Bergius+process+simple+sketch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ApomgjM8bBeknfaRsVbvyAntTMbYzfEydF5k9mOCuHYt8XaT31g77vPdp2IWZtxvqWpnZOuivn5ABB4w45kD_GBBBAuTQRaRQIZSxyJddD-k7q0Ny4f0fgUKKk1N5WcB8NzzIari_-LN/s1600/Bergius+process+simple+sketch.jpg" /></a></div>
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For more details on the principal Bergius process please check <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergius_process" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPkDrq9MV4QEixyn4kd510UboavQsZQYO9sV1CPnoTtZyM8rbwxzNIsn1j1mq7iO4-w_ehzWGrVzn-MejIs8D2i7qlxjYi6YUoAvJCBbjjGw3Fqq_evqdVYha9RULMQgCCidJcUaZHaCmm/s1600/2011-10-03+11.17.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPkDrq9MV4QEixyn4kd510UboavQsZQYO9sV1CPnoTtZyM8rbwxzNIsn1j1mq7iO4-w_ehzWGrVzn-MejIs8D2i7qlxjYi6YUoAvJCBbjjGw3Fqq_evqdVYha9RULMQgCCidJcUaZHaCmm/s320/2011-10-03+11.17.03.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the microwave units used in the reactor</td></tr>
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The Bionic microwave assisted version of the process has a number of impressive advantages compared to all earlier implementations which have been mostly abandoned for different reasons, but mainly due to the availability of cheap fossil oil (at the time) and the almost complete suspension of coal mining in Germany. As older implementations seem to come with environmental issues, with the exception of South Africa and China even exploding oil prices did not revive interest in coal liquefaction. China however is said to invest 15 billion dollars in its current 5-year plan in liquefaction.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwrzM7vvYeP6RcqIJtD8brN4mtmyWal6XRP7xYuh8j7-dYy8EDCgZixWsxXgErsucoQ68D73UQispTP7PM5Z0aoDIwxWz6lUlIaUUANCHv4XAsrs1tNdysnVa-DRZkdvblozZJKnnxh9H/s1600/CameraZOOM-20130205124919892.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwrzM7vvYeP6RcqIJtD8brN4mtmyWal6XRP7xYuh8j7-dYy8EDCgZixWsxXgErsucoQ68D73UQispTP7PM5Z0aoDIwxWz6lUlIaUUANCHv4XAsrs1tNdysnVa-DRZkdvblozZJKnnxh9H/s320/CameraZOOM-20130205124919892.jpg" title="Bionic microwave carbon liquefaction reactor vessel" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">µCTL carbon liquefaction reactor vessel </td></tr>
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The Bionic process eliminates all emission problems of former plant designs. It combines <a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-bionic-microfuel-reactor-type.html" target="_blank">a standard Bionic microfuel reactor like the mf60</a>, which used for the production of a highly volatile carbon powder, with a patent pending liquefaction reactor designed from scratch, for synthesizing the liquid fuel products.<br />
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The highly sophisticated reactor vessel allows the application of microwaves to the reaction mass (a mix of the fine carbon powder with heavy oil recycled from the process) which is continuously rotating in a high pressure hydrogen atmosphere.<br />
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More details are revealed in this presentation: <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/hwbffm/bionic-liquefaction-ofcoaltotransportationfuel20121012rev03public" target="_blank">Bionic Carbon Liquefaction Through Microwave Hydration</a>.<br />
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Converting the char deriving from many industrial waste and biomass treatment processes using this method will maximize efficiency while further reducing overall carbon footprints.<br />
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Especially Bionic's own microfuel process is producing high quality char in addition to the liquid and gaseous fuel products. When using the microfuel process to treat waste materials like plastic waste or used tyres the char residue can today only be used as a drop-in solid fuel for the replacement of fossil coal. With biomass as feedstock the Bionic char product already has a high value as a soil amendment for carbon sequestration and top soil improvement. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-86953720294409500632013-02-28T09:41:00.000+00:002013-04-12T11:40:33.622+00:00Jatropha for Dummies - Part 2 - The plant's future is non-toxic<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmX7uRkNbRDx-AP7rvl1fpqzGIIctdpWPnP_jF6mE_3SQSvcieB5mI0mXORr-KLBfBBS_CFSo0I4hv2bCpkzj-UjNRk3WCVMbMOc1jHIkBGeJe9z3sbS-HEWmf4Xv07gvaYsvZ1yxkM68/s1600/Jatropha+non-toxic+hybrid+B8+first+fruit+cluster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Non-toxic jatropha fruit cluster" border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmX7uRkNbRDx-AP7rvl1fpqzGIIctdpWPnP_jF6mE_3SQSvcieB5mI0mXORr-KLBfBBS_CFSo0I4hv2bCpkzj-UjNRk3WCVMbMOc1jHIkBGeJe9z3sbS-HEWmf4Xv07gvaYsvZ1yxkM68/s400/Jatropha+non-toxic+hybrid+B8+first+fruit+cluster.jpg" title="Elite non-toxic Jatropha from Bionic Palm collection" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fruit cluster on a non-toxic breeding plant (Bionic orchard, Ghana)</td></tr>
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After lots of painful experience during the first generation of commercial Jatropha projects - <b>attempting to exploit the toxic plants potential for biodiesel</b> - many are skeptical regarding a possible success for this cop. Still, groups of professional plant developers have formed worldwide working to convert the wild species Jatropha curcas into a viable commercial energy crop. Combined with an ever increasing flow of scientific reports exploring all aspects of this promising species it can be seen by now: success will only be a matter of time.<br />
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While contemporary reports on Jatropha development usually keep staring at incumbent farming projects which are still struggling with all the typical generation 1 problems, be it planting material or agronomic practices, Jatropha has long shown its enormous potential in all aspects of planting material improvement. The results are clearly visible in the breeding orchards around the world and in many insider reports.<br />
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The<b> future of Jatropha is non-toxic</b>, which will make it one of the most profitable crops for farmers ever planted. After pressing the oil from the seeds the remaining seed cake will be a highly valuable raw material for animal feed mixes exceeding even the protein content of soy meal. Jatropha seed meal was falsely considered inevitably toxic and difficult to detoxify. The solution to the problem is the creating of non-toxic cultivars based on wild accessions from the center of origin as parental material. Here at Bionic Palm we are among the world leaders in this sector of plant development...<br />
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Protein rich feed materials are in high demand around the world and increasingly expensive. Therefore non-toxic Jatropha is not only breaking the profitability barrier for Jatropha farming projects but also reversing the feed price squeeze in many tropical regions thus allowing poultry rearing and aquaculture to become good SME businesses ounce again.<br />
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There is a <b>wide genetic diversity in Jatropha germplasm</b> formerly unexploited which can be found at the center of origin. This allows successful breeding for improved planting material including the introduction of the non-toxic trait. Interspecific hybridization offers a second route to an increased genetic spread for selection of superior traits.<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ulev/bionic-jc-l30-breeding-program-20125-short" target="_blank"> Bionic Palm has been using both aspects systematically from the very beginning of the Jatropha Breeder 3.0 program</a>.<br />
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Jatropha is ideal in support of advanced agroforestry concepts helping to<b> reclaim depleted soil </b>formerly used for mining and unsustainable farming. With a growing environmental awareness in developing countries requirements are increasing for mining operations to reduce their environmental impact including carbon emissions. Non-toxic Jatropha offers enormous possibilities to convert growing sustainability budgets from simple cost items into effective investments as mining operations are usually also large energy consumers.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAE9_hdew03-xjMhhWbhIYUN6mbG7ue2mmF-I-NdcXUoKfvRmtL1gYXhaZu13jRVQq3ZRHk7dNB5zZsuaoZj7egXYkSI3V30jzChaDXAb6151DPHRUNhdCAvcBWfHGq_L2doQ5nclzB67J/s1600/Alleys+prepared+for+planting+%2528800x600%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Jatropha alleys for vegetable planting" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAE9_hdew03-xjMhhWbhIYUN6mbG7ue2mmF-I-NdcXUoKfvRmtL1gYXhaZu13jRVQq3ZRHk7dNB5zZsuaoZj7egXYkSI3V30jzChaDXAb6151DPHRUNhdCAvcBWfHGq_L2doQ5nclzB67J/s400/Alleys+prepared+for+planting+%2528800x600%2529.jpg" title="Jatropha alleys at the Bionic test farm in Ghana" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alleys of pruned Jatropha prepared for vegetable planting (Bionic test farm, Ghana)</td></tr>
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Jatropha can play a major role in <b>adaptation to the effects of climate change</b> in the tropical and sub-tropical regions. Advanced Jatropha cultivars will exhibit an increased drought tolerance and offer capabilities to withstand the expected climatic changes in the tropics. Jatropha hedges planted in combination with food crops under irrigation will help protect the latter from the increasingly harsh environmental situation.<br />
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See also:<br />
<a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2011/05/jatropha-for-dummies-part-1-problem.html" target="_blank">Jatropha for Dummies - Part 1 - The problem</a><br />
<a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2013/03/jatropha-for-dummies-part-3-farming.html" target="_blank">Jatropha for Dummies - Part 3 - The Farming</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0Dangme West, Ghana5.8909555927110206 0.367580155078144345.8593660927110207 0.32723965507814434 5.9225450927110206 0.40792065507814435tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-19617297974340622912013-02-20T13:05:00.000+00:002013-08-25T10:33:06.449+00:00New Bionic µBTL reactor type announced<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMwrzg4DWnrMdV5ysXdFEJ3ulZ2NDvdWofiddpnPQFwJJRGUvaqYdp7EoC3BrvtsrELJjaBWjZ4MfnChDJqNTHkz4YmdJul2C4n2hecEK8WUIGjbssK0rUnw4hCFiA8Xyx83Y1qP1ULAH/s1600/mf60+core+rotary+element.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMwrzg4DWnrMdV5ysXdFEJ3ulZ2NDvdWofiddpnPQFwJJRGUvaqYdp7EoC3BrvtsrELJjaBWjZ4MfnChDJqNTHkz4YmdJul2C4n2hecEK8WUIGjbssK0rUnw4hCFiA8Xyx83Y1qP1ULAH/s320/mf60+core+rotary+element.jpg" title="Bionic microfuel mf60 reactor core rotary element under construction" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bionic microfuel mf60 core element expecting assembly</td></tr>
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Over the last year the Bionic Fuel Group has designed a new small scale MWDP reactor mf60 which is currently under construction at Bionic's manufacturer <a href="http://www.smeral.cz/DefaultGB.html" target="_blank">Smeral Brno a.s. in the Czech Republic</a>. One of the special features of the mf60 design is its capability to house a complete plant in up to 4 standard 40' containers, resulting in completely mobile MWDP processing plants. Combined with the relevant feedstock preparation modules and the necessary oil upgrading functions all MWDP feedstock types can be processed on this mobile platform. On average the unit is able to process 250kg of dry feedstock per hour.<br />
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As a reminder, <a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2011/01/development-of-mwdp.html" target="_blank">MWDP, Bionic's microwave depolymerization technology</a> economically converts organic materials like biomass, plastic waste, used tires and many more into high value liquid and solid fuels. The process utilizes a zeolite catalyst augmented by the application of modulated microwaves.<br />
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Once the core unit is completed it will undergo rigid test processing at the manufacturer's site, first internally and then under audit of a renown certification authority. The formal certification will greatly enhance funding options for several large microfuel projects currently in the pipeline. Selected clients will have the opportunity to see the unit in operation during this phase.<br />
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Subsequently the qualification plant will be adapted to fully simulate the process of plastic waste conversion. Extensive test and demonstration runs will be performed in order to fully qualify plastic waste as feedstock for large scale microfuel plants. This activity will form an important step towards a scale up process resulting in a full scale pilot plant to be installed at a waste treatment facility in Germany.<br />
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As still another step the equipment will thereafter go back to the manufacturer to get rigged up for the planned 4 container set up including all the auxiliary modules necessary for feedstock preparation and product upgrading. The included CHP does not only make the plant independent from external power supply but is also capable of converting all of the produced oil into electricity thus reducing disposal problems for shorter term demonstration runs. This fully mobile plant will go on tour to visit several of our long term potential clients for extensive on-site test and demonstration runs in preparation for long planned large plant orders.<br />
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Surprisingly we have already received a number of requests from clients who show high interest to acquire this size of plant for their own specialty purposes. Clean-up of contaminated soil and biochar production are only 2 of the potential commercial uses for this type of unit. Bionic expects to close a number of orders over the first 6 months of the year. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-47816896042182186142013-02-01T14:24:00.000+00:002013-02-02T09:25:46.802+00:00Jatropha patents and intellectual propertyRecently we performed a simple patent search for "Jatropha". The result was quite stunning! Lots of patents have been granted or are under application regarding the commercial exploitation of this interesting plant.<br />
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So let's group them a little bit:<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Superior (or special) Jatropha cultivars and methods to create the same</b><br />Includes several hybrid developments by Nandan and an attempt by SG Biofuels Ltd. to patent a male-sterile trait in Jatropha. (More about the latter follows below)</li>
<li><b>Genetic manipulation of certain traits</b><br />Specifically Joil's approach to improve Jatropha oil quality through the transfer of a certain gene sequence from Castor. (We keep arguing that the same result can be achieved by conservative breeding, no GMO necessary)</li>
<li><b>Mass propagation of Jatropha</b><br />Mainly but not exclusively about tissue culture, i.e. protocols for in-vitro vegetative propagation.<br /> </li>
<li><b>Detoxification of Jatropha</b><br />Several combinations of chemical and/or mechanical separation processes can do the job.</li>
<li><b>Jatropha-to-fuel processing methods</b><br />Special methods for producing biodiesel and other fuels from Jatropha and Jatropha oil respectively.</li>
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We started checking patent regulations to find out what can really be patented in and around a plant or better, what cannot be patented. And I can tell you, that's one of the most confusing quagmires our great politicians ever created. Anyway, there are 2 globally common denominators we can highlight here:<br />
<ol>
<li>No wild plant or trait of a wild plant can ever be protected by a patent (or plant breeders rights), even if it was discovered for the very first time.</li>
<li>Any variety protected by a patent or other plant breeder rights can be used by other breeders for further breeding without any obligations to license the original material.</li>
</ol>
Now we are specifically looking at an <a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/sgb-jatropha-patent-application-published/" target="_blank">SG Biofuels patent application regarding a "female-only" trait in Jatropha curcas</a> which would have <b>serious consequences for our <a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/" target="_blank">Jatropha Breeder 3.0 platform</a> and others if ever granted</b>. The patent application claims a male-sterile trait in Jatropha which is described as the result of expert hybrid breeding and not further qualified by DNA fingerprinting. If hybrid crossing, as claimed, would be the only way known of obtaining this important trait for breeders, everyone would be out of luck by now. Fortunately for us and the industry, <a href="http://bionic-palm.com/male-sterile-jatropha-accessions-disclosed/" target="_blank">Bionic Palm is in possession of several male-sterile Jatropha plants</a> which are direct descendants of wild Jatropha plants at the center of origin in Guatemala and Mexico. No breeding or crossing was ever involved in their creation.<br />
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Therefore above exclusion no1 applies: <b>a trait present in a wild plant can never be patented</b>. We will have to wait and monitor carefully, if patent authorities in any of the many countries where this application is running in parallel will overlook the disclosure by Bionic Palm and grant the patent. In this case a formal complaint will have to be filed within 9 months.<br />
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In our opinion this little case story reveals how dangerous the IP arena has become for everyone. And how risky it is, not to constantly monitor new applications in your field of work. Patents today are viewed very differently by different organizations. While most simply and rightly just want to protect their development work, some seem to be eager making the accumulation of patented IP the core of their business, often benefiting from the work of others in the process.<br />
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A few weeks ago we had not expected, that Jatropha plant development has started becoming a playing field for IP hawks like Information Technology or Mobile Communication. But that definitely seems to be the case... Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-90983013186587251192013-01-15T15:11:00.001+00:002013-01-15T15:16:11.839+00:00Healthy soil is Bionic's focal point for 2013<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>At Bionic</b> we have for years again and again discussed issues around the sustainable use of arable soil in more than one way. After all Bionic Fuel’s <b>microfuel technology</b> produces one of the most effective biochars available (besides the main product: liquid drop-in fuels), while Bionic Palm started more than 5 years ago to actively explore methods of sustainable and organic farming in tropical Africa. Soil fertility, i.e. the soils natural content of macro and micro nutrients required by practically all plants for a healthy development, is a major feature defining the usability of a stretch of available land.</div>
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<a href="http://bionic-enterprises.com/healthy-soil-is-bionics-focal-point-for-2013/bio-elite-production-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-159" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bio-Elite fertilizer production" class=" wp-image-159 " height="202" src="http://bionic-enterprises.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/bio-elite-production-2-300x224.jpg" width="270" /></a><br />
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Bio-Elite fertilizer production</div>
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Against that background it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that when the chance came up during 2012 at Bionic Lab in Germany we worked hard to develop a new cooperation implementing <b>a patented</b> <b>bio fertilizer</b> production technology for a <b>100% organic NPK substitute</b>. Feedstock for the process is a combination of biomass and manure, treated with special fungi and bacteria over a period of 45 days. Opposed to common uses of composted biomass and animal manure as fertilizers which are difficult and risky to apply, the <b>Bio-Elite process</b> guarantees a completely normalized macro nutrient content, allowing the application of exact nutrient amounts as required. Typical negative effects of over- or under-fertilization are a thing of the past.</div>
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For quite some time now experts and researchers agree on the need to better reuse plant nutrients, as synthetic fertilizers are not only getting more and more expensive, they also contribute significantly to climate change and some of the required natural resources are quickly running out. Nature does recycle plant nutrients at an almost 100% rate, but with modern farming and food processing chains most nutrients end up anywhere but where they came from: the farm. It would be necessary to close the loop from waste management and manure treatment plants back to the farm. The key issue, as already mentioned above, is the fact that modern intensive farming requires a relatively precise calculation and application of the key nutrients.</div>
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Here is exactly the point where <b>Bionic Lab’s</b> new approach comes in: <a href="http://www.bio-elite-duenger.de/index.html" target="_blank" title="Bio Elite website in German only">with the Bio-Elite process invented and patent by Bionic’s partner Wolfgang Wondrak</a> (unfortunately the linked website is currently in German only). From 2013 Bionic will actively market the unique Bio-Elite process to its waste processing client base as an exciting addition to the microfuel waste-to-fuel conversion technology.</div>
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<a href="http://bionic-enterprises.com/healthy-soil-is-bionics-focal-point-for-2013/bio-elite-production-1/" rel="attachment wp-att-158"><img alt="Regular mechanical treatment over a period of 45 days" class=" wp-image-158 " height="202" src="http://bionic-enterprises.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/bio-elite-production-1-300x224.png" width="270" /></a><br />
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Mechanical turning every few days</div>
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It is important to mention, that from the very beginning this new organic fertilizer is highly competitive against its synthetic rivals in terms of production cost. So this new fertilizer product is fully substitutive, organic, 100% climate neutral (if bio energy is used for the production and logistic processes) and even comes at a lower cost. No wonder, that after only a few months of unofficial marketing the interest from potential clients is already overwhelming.</div>
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Further information can be found on <a href="http://www.bionic-world.net/index.php/en/agro-processing.html" target="_blank" title="Treatment of agricultural waste">Bionic World</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://bionic-enterprises.com/healthy-soil-is-bionics-focal-point-for-2013/">Healthy soil is Bionic's focal point for 2013</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-971487796973887022012-11-26T21:42:00.001+00:002013-01-14T13:22:15.296+00:00A 3-way interspecific Jatropha hybrid has been born<div style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0; width: 500px;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50824583@N06/8220125769/in/set-72157632107060570/" style="display: block; float: left; height: 75px; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px;" title="Seed comparison"><img alt="Seed comparison" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8220125769_02512ea0f2_s.jpg" style="border: none; height: 75px; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px;" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50824583@N06/8220146857/in/set-72157632107060570/" style="display: block; float: left; height: 75px; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px;" title="BHX1 Jatropha interspecific hybrid (6 DAS)"><img alt="BHX1 Jatropha interspecific hybrid (6 DAS)" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8486/8220146857_858a3388a8_s.jpg" style="border: medium none; height: 75px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 75px;" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50824583@N06/8220151657/in/set-72157632107060570/" style="display: block; float: left; height: 75px; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px;" title="BHX2 Jatropha interspecific hybrid (7 DAS)"><img alt="BHX2 Jatropha interspecific hybrid (7 DAS)" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8070/8220151657_7a41ec3131_s.jpg" style="border: medium none; height: 75px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 75px;" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50824583@N06/8231359657/in/set-72157632107060570/" style="display: block; float: left; height: 75px; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px;" title="BHX1 Jatropha interspecific hybrid 10DAS"><img alt="BHX1 Jatropha interspecific hybrid (10 DAS)" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8478/8231359657_8b9456a1d9_s.jpg" style="border: medium none; height: 75px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 75px;" title="BHX1 Jatropha interspecific hybrid - first leave coming (10 DAS)" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50824583@N06/sets/72157632107060570/">A 3-way interspecific Jatropha hybrid</a>, a picture set on Flickr following the development.</div>
To the best of our knowledge this is a first in commercial hybrid Jatropha breeding history: Bionic Palm has succeeded to naturally create an innovative interspecific hybrid which contains genetic material from <b>3 different Jatropha species</b>. No GMO was involved in the process.<br />
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Over the coming 12 to 18 months breeding specialists will explore all angles of this exciting success. This group of plants has the potential to mark the beginning of a new era in the development of commercially viable Jatropha planting material. It opens the route to a plethora of new traits including the potential to develop semi-annual Jatropha curcas hybrids similar to commercial Castor varieties. Still in its earliest state, this development could of course turn out a complete failure. Only time will tell.<br />
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Bionic Palm Jatropha breeders have worked for three years to identify a working breeding path that allows for this unique combination of genetic material. Already a large number of new crosses using genetically diverse parental interspecific hybrids are under development to confirm this break through. If reproduction turns out successful this approach will be available for the development of many new superior hybrid Jatropha cultivars. <br />
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In any case this was <a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/" target="_blank">a key objective of Bionic Palm's Jatropha Breeder 3.0 platform</a> development for the last 3 years. Finally getting there after many failures sets another milestone on the continuous success path of the project. Patent applications for the protocol that has been developed to make this procedure repetitive are under way. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06395506364416722643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-20233254385649713322012-10-28T19:57:00.002+00:002013-01-14T14:28:38.106+00:00Bionic publishes formerly confidential presentation on Jatropha Breeding PlatformBionic management took a bold decision recently on the public sharing of information from its Jatropha Breeding Program. Only information directly connected to pending patent applications will in the future remain confidential. This means that the main bulk of information and developed knowledge from one of the world's most advanced commercial Jatropha breeding activities can and will be shared publicly over time.<br />
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Bionic wants to set an example in modern, more open information exchange policies in the sector of commercial plant development.<br />
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In a first step today the full presentation on the Bionic Jatropha Breeding Platform was made public on the Bionic Palm website. Check it out here <a href="http://bionic-palm.com/jatropha/the-bionic-jatropha-breeding-platform-presentation/" target="_blank">Bionic Jatropha Breeding Platform</a> to learn about the details of modern plant breeding.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-43915896345133826752012-09-30T12:17:00.001+00:002013-01-14T14:32:08.315+00:00Heterosis increases Jatropha seed weight 100% and more<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-305 alignleft" height="210" src="http://jatropha.x10.bz/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/CIMG1299-640x472-300x221.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Heterosis showing in seed size and weight" width="264" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heterosis makes a difference in seed size!</td></tr>
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It has been only a month since <a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/heterosis-in-jatropha-breeding/" target="_blank" title="Heterosis in Jatropha breeding">we last wrote on heterosis in Jatropha breeding</a>. However, we had not seen then, what we have seen now…</div>
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We have harvested a handfull of seeds from the intraspecific hybrid exhibiting by far the strongest heterosis effects in leave size and height. And we were up for a real surprise.</div>
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We had recently seen 2 scientific reports on heterosis trials with Jatropha in South East Asia mentioning maximum positive heterosis in seed weight of up to 25%. We therefore really had not expected to see our highest 100-seed weight so far. Extrapolated from 20 harvested seeds it is slightly above 110g. Seed size can be compared very well in the picture above with control (small seeds on the right) being a typical average size Jatropha seed at a 100-seed weight of 56g.</div>
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This is a preview of: <a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/heterosis-increases-jatropha-seed-weight/" target="_blank">Heterosis increases Jatropha seed weight 100% and more</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-3060475324761208972012-09-16T17:10:00.001+00:002013-02-19T15:52:14.916+00:00F2 Jatropha interspecific hybrids available<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the second half of August we successfully germinated the first three F2 seedlings from one of our interspecific hybrids. From now we have F2 Jatropha interspecific hybrids available for further breeding. While some research reports seem to indicate that this type of interspecific hybrid is sterile or not interesting for breeding, we observe an ongoing successful seed development on several of our early F1 plants deriving from different Jatropha curcas female parents.</div>
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<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_268" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/Jatropha%20interspecific%20hybrid%20F2"><img alt="Large diversity in F2 interspecific hybrids not unexpected" class="size-medium wp-image-268 " height="296" src="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/H1.2F2-26-days-after-germination-2-800x595-300x223.jpg" title="Month old seedlings of F2 interspecific Jatropha hybrids" width="400" /></a><br />
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F2 seedlings of interspecific JcL hybrids 1 month old showing wide variation</div>
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As expected from applying general Mendel rules the F2 generation is much more genetically diverse than the F1 generation. Out of 3 seedlings so far, only the one on the left seems to be a strong and healthy plant while the other 2 are only moving along very slowly.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/H2-pollinated-H1-fruit-13-DAP-13-mm-long.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/H2-pollinated-H1-fruit-13-DAP-13-mm-long.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fruit on an interspecific F1 hybrid</td></tr>
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We expect our F2 interspecific population to grow very fast over the coming months involving many different F1 interspecific parents with genetically very different Jatropha curcas parents in turn. Currently many F1s are initiating their first flowering. On the interspecific route of our breeding program this is really what we have worked on for almost 3 years, as now we start moving into terrain which has not previously discussed in the scientific literature to the best of our knowledge.</div>
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This development marks another success in our initial target to bring as much variability into the germplasm available to us for future selective breeding. We are now able to work on a real ground breaking next step we had been planning for since we did the first interspecific cross almost 2 years ago. With a little luck results will become visible before the end of the year.</div>
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Further observations on the interspecific breeding route will be published here as much as possible, but of course we will have to start protecting our intellectual property where we reach the forefront of commercial hybrid development as we are expecting a meaningful patent application before too long.</div>
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<a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/f2-interspecific-hybrids/">F2 Jatropha interspecific hybrids available</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-5393757415044784922012-09-15T16:09:00.001+00:002012-09-15T16:41:33.548+00:00The new Bionic Cocoa project<br />
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At Bionic Palm an exciting new agriforestry project has been brought on the way. The <a href="http://bpl.x10.bz/cocoa/" title="The Bionic Cocoa project">Bionic Cocoa project</a> will feature double hedges of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobroma_cacao" title="Cocoa on Wikipedia">Cocoa trees</a> planted alongside local food crops like maize, pepper, tomatoes, okro, cocoa yam, plantain and more.</div>
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Bionic Palm’s experience from over 3 years of Jatropha/food crop farming will be a major input to the project which will be conducted in active cooperation with local families.</div>
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New forms of participation by the local farming community and land owners are being developed.</div>
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During a 2-3 year test phase all technical details and their feasibility will be worked out. The project is governed by the highest levels of sustainability including a completely organic approach, soil retaining inputs like mycorrhiza and other micro organisms, biochar soil amendments and no-till weed management. The Bionic Palm leadership is convinced, that the most environmentally and socially sustainable methods will also generate the most sustainable profit expectations combined with a lower risk in any life-cycle assessment of the project.</div>
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Find more about this project in the <a href="http://bpl.x10.bz/cocoa/" title="Bionic Palm Cocoa project">Cocoa section</a> on the Bionic Palm website.</div>
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<br />
<a href="http://bionic-enterprises.com/bionic-cocoa-project/">The new Bionic Cocoa project</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-45424680707718683442012-07-15T15:52:00.002+00:002013-01-14T14:39:47.063+00:00Bionic Palm has launched the Jatropha Breeder 3.0 Blog<div style="text-align: justify;">
After experimenting with the idea for almost a year Bionic Palm MD Ulrich B Riemann has finally decided to officially launch his new blog <a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/" target="_blank">"The Jatropha Breeder 3.0 by Bionic Palm"</a>. This coincides with the successful end of an almost 24 months proof-of-concept (POC) testing our various ideas and concepts to improve the immensely under-performing Jatropha curcas species in its potential role as an energy and feed crop.</div>
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We were able to demonstrate with great success that our vision of high performing non-toxic Jatropha cultivars is not a dream, but in many ways a reality. Before the POC ended June 30th we were able to develop the first 12 seedlings of a highly variable back-cross generation (BC1). This generation of unique hybrids will be a cornerstone for various promising breeding approaches to come. Going forward many high yielding non-toxic and toxic varieties will be developed. We expect to reach our initial target of a high performing non-toxic elite cultivar within the coming 24 months. Field testing has already started with some unique early non-toxic intraspecific hybrids which will be used in long term poultry feed trials starting later this year.</div>
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Here at the Bionic Group we are all very excited to see what was achievable so far with a small network of scientific partners from Europe and a very small budget. A significant amount of valuable IP has been generated which will lead to a number of patent applications in the near future.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-42790372961332990122011-05-26T09:30:00.000+00:002013-03-26T14:29:29.170+00:00Jatropha for Dummies - Part 1 - The Crunch<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I meet all these people lately asking me, hey, "what are you doing down there in Africa..." and I say: "Jatropha farming my friend" trying to be as brief as possible. 95% of the time I either get a blank look or a "Huu Jat... eh... what did you say? Never heard of it."<br />
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This is hard to believe for somebody who has spent every day of his live since 2008 with the ups and downs of this business but its the plain truth, most people don't have the slightest idea what I am talking about... So usually quite hesitantly I start going on: "You know, its this new crop people talk about a lot recently for producing non-edible oil to be used in airplanes replacing some of today's fossil jet fuels and get the airlines' carbon balance right". Ahh, they say, "like palm oil isn't it? But isn't that bad for the environment?"<br />
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Listening to this again and again and reading all those vastly unfounded reports from NGO's bashing a very promising future energy and animal feed crop that has not even fully emerged the "breeder's drawing board" yet has finally convinced me to start writing this small series of articles. It should help those interested and with an open mind to understand better what the whole thing is about.<br />
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I myself am the <a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enterprises.com/jatropha-breeder/author/" target="_blank">MD of Bionic Palm in Ghana and a Jatropha farmer, but even more an active breeder of future high yielding Jatropha</a> and a developer of all kinds of "agronomic" techniques aiming to make this plant a profitable and highly sustainable source of energy and protein. We work with partners from around the world who share our motivation.<br />
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There is an obvious high disappointment by many with Jatropha by many investors and downstream oil users, however, this is a notion commonly not shared by long standing experienced researchers of the plant. Now, why is that so?<br />
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Jatropha (to be correct "Jatropha curcas Linn" or for us from here on simply <b>JcL</b>) is a native of Central America and a member of a large genus of approx. 172 different species. It offers a lot of interesting features as a biological system that have never been fully explored. JcL was brought to Africa and Asia many hundred years ago by the Portuguese. Until recently its use was mainly limited to serving as hedges separating cattle from fields and controlling mosquitoes with a small side use for soap and candle making. Therefore, there was never any serious domestication of the plant and for many decades it was basically left to itself until it was rediscovered in Africa and India as a possible feedstock source for biodiesel. The big hype that followed with investors was never founded on well thought through agronomic and business plans and definitely not based on a sound scientific understanding of JcL specifically or its taxonomic genus in general. Only a small number of reports had been published on the plant and only a handful of scientists had ever studied it. (A situation that significantly changed over the last 5 years.)<br />
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Still the investors of the early years concentrated on the acquisition of hundreds of thousands of hectars and started planting rapidly without ever truly analyzing the material they were working with. The back lash came quickly: The near wild plants they chose to plant with enormous financial efforts did not perform anywhere near as expected in their presentations. They all left out a very simple rule of agricultural projects: testing, testing, testing... When they started realizing their mistakes it was already too late. The investors' money was gone and projects failing everywhere as they were never planned right in the first place. And then the global financial crisis hit, so no fresh money was available anywhere. Today we find large numbers of suspended or even completely abandoned projects from those days especially all over Africa.<br />
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It didn't take long and legions of would be experts started blaming and criticizing JcL as the wrong approach for an endless number of reasons. However, since the people writing all the negative reports are not remotely the same kind of experts on JcL as they are on negative report writing, very few sound, business oriented assessments surfaced over the last few years. We have recently reported about one<a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2011/03/excellent-new-report-on-future-of.html"> here</a>.<br />
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But mostly unrecognized in public, in the background there was some profound practical and scientific work starting. While industry, finance and politics started abandoning JcL everywhere many researchers and agronomists picked up the subject and started for the first time some serious work on tha5t crop.<br />
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This author made some simple statements in a presentation given at a conference in 2008 in Accra:<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://tiny.cc/BPL-model">Here</a> you can find a later, refined version of this very presentation) </span><br />
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<b>"The Jatropha value chain is financially not working out for the early producers".</b><br />
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But, the statement continued: "the outlook is positive once the following conditions are met:<br />
1 - <b>high yielding domesticated cultivars become available</b><br />
2 - <b>improved agronomic methods increase yields</b><br />
3 - <b>JcL specific mechanization technology becomes available</b>"<br />
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Today I would add a statement about non-toxic cultivars or (less preferable) successful detoxification of the press cake in order to be able to use it as animal feed. <br />
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It was all clear in 2008 (while most still presented their old business models <a href="http://www.greenleaf-global.com/">and some even do it until today</a>), what is stated in more an more scientific reports: we need better planting material to begin with! However, improving planting material by large margins has been done again and again, so why not with JcL? Its quite impressive to study the history of the development of some common crops like maize with yield improvements of several hundred percent over the last 50-100 years.<br />
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In spite of the permanent flow of critical reporting, new strategies have been put in place around the world to change the JcL picture regarding all of the above mentioned points.<br />
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For example a company called SG Biofuels from San Diego, California has launched its Jatropha 2.0 platform with a lot of marketing hype (prematurely as I think) while we at Bionic Palm started our Bionic JcL3.0 initiative focused on Africa but actually reaching out much further than SGB. What all these activities have in common is a more profound approach to overcome the barriers that stopped the early JcL growers.<br />
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So what is out there to be expected?<br />
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My prediction is for a thriving JcL industry starting to pick up around 2015 with some early adopters of a generation 3 approach. Improved cultivars start coming up and will do so in growing numbers over the next couple of years. We plan to have a first high yielding non-toxic cultivar available for extensive testing by the end of 2013 after finalizing a proof of concept by mid 2012.<br />
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The markets, especially for green jet fuel (SPK) sector, <a href="http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2013/01/29/jatropha-loves-to-fly-and-it-shows/" target="_blank">will push hard for more supply, as their demand will be rising seriously from 2012 when Europe introduces its new emission policy for all commercial airlines </a>flying in and out of Europe. Therefore the interested industry is already returning to JcL working on all kinds of feasibility reports and finance will start following them as long term off-take agreements become common.<br />
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Unfortunately we are currently going through a phase which I call the Jatropha generation 2, where strange people are pushing around clouds, sign long term deals for non existent Jatropha oil and "buy and sell" on the web a commodity that mostly doesn't exist. This is the aftermath of the generation 1 gold rush and will vanish as soon as serious generation 3 projects emerge, based on strategies incorporating sound planting materials and agronomy concepts.<br />
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This article will be followed by 4 more attempting to give more insight about what is to be expected from JcL:<br />
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<a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2013/02/jatropha-for-dummies-part-2-future-is.html" target="_blank">Jatropha for Dummies - Part 2 - The future is non-toxic</a><br />
Jatropha for Dummies - Part 3 - The Farming<br />
Jatropha for Dummies - Part 4 - Equipment and Processing<br />
Jatropha for Dummies - Part 5 - JcL Break Through - But When?<br />
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Please visit also our <a href="http://jatropha.bionic-enerprises.com/" target="_blank">Jatropha Breeder 3.0 Blog</a> where we talk about our breeding platform in more detail.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-8127686010703868702011-04-21T16:34:00.002+00:002011-04-22T07:56:52.900+00:00Bionic Fuel MWDP commercialization on track<div style="text-align: justify;">A most important step in the way forward for <a href="http://bionicfuel.blogspot.com/2011/01/development-of-mwdp.html">Bionic's MWDP technology</a> has just been achieved: Bionic Fuel received a letter of intent for the first commercial reactor. It will be fully assembled at the Smeral Factory in Brno, Czech Republic and rigorously tested against its specifications. We will publish a full record of the manufacturing and testing process on this website. After all formal certifications are completed the reactor will be disassembled and shipped to its final location at the project site in Hawaii.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">The client,<a href="http://www.ainakoapono.com/"> Aina Koa Pono LLC (AKP)</a> plans to order a second batch of 12 reactors which will be combined in a cluster configuration and feed their oil to a biorefinery. Outputs will be ASTM diesel, high quality biochar and fuel additives. In January AKP has signed a 20-year off-take agreement with HECO, the Hawaiian power company.</div><br />
See also the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://78.47.105.139/en?t=/contentManager/onStory&e=UTF-8&i=1295905862068&l=0&s=CcEDeQbOG5r3zJa26&ParentID=203&StoryID=1302540533226">news on the BFT website</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6323649752853491175.post-47819490538040019422011-03-24T09:39:00.002+00:002011-03-24T09:57:14.728+00:00Excellent new report on the future of Jatropha published<div style="text-align: justify;">An excellent investor oriented 43 page report on Jatropha (JcL) has been published by <a href="http://www.hardmanandco.com/">Hardman & Co</a> titled "Plant with a bad Name". It is definitely the best publication of this kind we have ever seen anywhere, a must read for any serious player in the industry. The full document can be downloaded <a href="http://tiny.cc/jclinvestreport">here</a>.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report points out the simple fact, that spectacular failures in the past with a number of JcL projects are no indication for the performance of this crop in the future. The past was based on semi wild planting material and little agronomic knowledge on how to manage it correctly. There was simply not enough scientific and practical background for commercial JcL farming. The report shows in detail, how this situation is changing rapidly. <b>"Professional planters, working with Jatropha crop scientists are now developing commercially sized and scalable plantations in suitable growing locations. These ventures have the potential to prove the commercial case for Jatropha as a biofuels feedstock." </b>This statement from the report sums up all the contained details very well, which have been brought together in one place for the first time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Bionic Palm itself is at the forefront of this development with its world class JcL breeding program and its integrated food & fuel farming concept. Both approaches are unique in several ways and the goals exceed highly marketed activities by others. That's why we started calling our platform JcL3.0.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
We focus on the development of non toxic, high yielding hybrid cultivars in our genetic marker assisted breeding program where we partner with <a href="http://www.geneticlab.it/">Geneticlab</a>, a world leader in commercial research on molecular genetics of JcL. The report describes the great opportunities of a detoxification process for the press cake, a process said to be commercially available by 2012/2013. We are very confident, that our focused hybrid breeding process will turn out the first commercially usable non-toxic planting material within about the same time frame. Non-toxic or at least controlled low-toxic material is actually a must for the future protection of workers' health, as it is well known, that current JcL can become a serious long term health hazard to farm workers exposed to it for years. We will soon publish a document, that is going to look at the many advantages of non-toxic hybrid planting material vs. the current toxic one even with detoxification available.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Our integrated food & fuel farming is another piece of leading edge JcL development which we have been testing intensively over the last 3 years on our 150ha test plantation. This <a href="http://tiny.cc/BPL-model">presentation</a> explains most of the aspects involved in detail. The concept is highly sustainable, can reclaim depleted and eroded soils and generate food outputs currently unseen in Sub Saharan Africa, while still generating significant volumes of Jatropha products.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0