VISALIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Edeniq, Inc. (“Edeniq”), a cellulosic sugar producer, announced it has signed a letter of intent with Global Bio-chem Technology Group Company Limited (“Global Bio-chem,” HKG:0809) to develop and commercialize processes to convert corn stover to industrial sugars for use in the production of chemicals, fuels, and other bio-based products.
Pursuant to the letter of intent, Edeniq and Global Bio-chem intend to integrate their technologies in a commercial demonstration plant to produce 50,000 metric tons per year of industrial sugars from corn stover, and subsequently to form a joint venture to further develop and commercialize their technology platform. Global Bio-chem is currently working on modification of corn stover, consisting of leaves, stalks and cobs of corn at its facility in the Jilin Province of China.
“This relationship with Global Bio-chem will accelerate the scale-up and commercialization of our continuous sugars process and build upon years of technology development at our pilot facilities in California,” said Mr. Brian Thome, President and CEO of Edeniq. “We believe our joint venture will offer an industry-leading, low-cost technology platform to biochemical and biofuel producers in China, the United States, and elsewhere, enabling significant market growth for bio-based products.”
Ms. Xu Ziyi, Executive Director of Global Bio-chem, said: “The Group is a pioneer in using corn stalk as raw material for further downstream processing, and has been working on fully utilizing other corn residues as well. Our collaboration with Edeniq is to focus on enhancing our technology to significantly reduce the production costs of corn stover-based sugar, and to enable us to expand into a variety of bio-based products with such biomass as raw material.”
The collaboration between Global Bio-chem and Edeniq has gained government support. “The Jilin provincial government is pleased to support Global Bio-chem-Edeniq partnership in its goal to develop processes to utilize the millions of metric tons per year of corn stover available in our province,” said Mr. Dawei Liu, Deputy Commissioner of Industry Department, Jilin Province Development and Reform Committee.
About Edeniq
Edeniq delivers integrated process innovations that unlock sugars. These technological innovations uniquely combine mechanical and biological processes. Edeniq’s capital light and operationally efficient solutions can be easily integrated into existing biorefineries that produce ethanol, other biofuels, biochemicals, and/or bio-based products. Edeniq currently sells or licenses its technologies to biorefineries in the United States and Brazil. Edeniq was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Visalia, California with locations in Omaha, Nebraska and São Paulo State, Brazil.
About Global Bio-chem
Global Bio-chem has been listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited since 2001. The Group is principally engaged in the manufacture and sale, research and development of corn-based biochemical products in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). Its products are sold in the PRC and worldwide. Headquartered in Hong Kong and with its production facilities based in various provinces in the PRC, Global Bio-chem is the largest vertically integrated corn-based biochemical product manufacturer in Asia and is one of the leading lysine players in the fermentation industry worldwide. The Group is one of the pioneers in applying corn starch as raw material for the commercial production of polyol chemicals. Global Bio-chem is also the parent company of Global Sweeteners Holdings Limited, one of the largest corn sweeteners producers in the PRC, which is also listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.