NEW YORK, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Xethanol Corporation (BULLETIN BOARD: XTHN) , a bio-technology integration and ethanol production company, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Superior Separation Technologies, Inc. (SSTI), a wholly owned subsidiary of UTEK Corporation, in a stock transaction.
SSTI holds the exclusive license to a patented technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewal Energy Laboratory designed to effectively separate lignocellulosic material into lignin, cellulose and dissolved sugars. The new method enables wood or herbaceous biomass feedstocks to be fractionated by an efficient, single-phase process that produces pure end products. These separated materials may then be efficiently fermented to produce products such as ethanol and xylitol.
Christopher d'Arnaud-Taylor, Xethanol's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the company's acquisition, saying, "We believe that the acquisition of this technology for separation of lignocellulosic material will be synergistic with our current methods for producing ethanol and xylitol. We look forward to deploying this important process technology at our Biomass Technology Center in Iowa. Once we prove out this exciting technology at that facility, we will seek to deploy this and our other technology acquisitions at our plant in Blairstown, Iowa and other sites as we expand production facilities. We may also license this and other technologies to assist other ethanol producers in increasing efficiency."
Richard Bolin, Market Analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said, "We are very enthusiastic about working with Xethanol Corporation, as they develop and commercialize our new technology for fractionating all types of lignocellulosic material into separate components. We share Xethanol's vision and believe that this method of separation is an excellent enhancement for generating valuable products such as ethanol and xylitol." These and other factors are discussed in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including its recent filings on Form 8-K.
"UTEK is pleased to consummate this technology transfer with Xethanol Corporation, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to identify additional technology acquisition opportunities for their consideration," commented Joel H. Edelson, Vice President of Technology Alliances at UTEK.
About Xethanol Corporation
Xethanol Corporation seeks to become a leader in the emerging biomass-to- ethanol industry. Its mission is to convert biomass that is currently being abandoned or land filled into ethanol and other valuable co-products. Xethanol's strategy is to deploy proprietary bio-technologies that will extract and ferment the sugars trapped in these biomass concentrations. Xethanol's value proposition is to produce ethanol and valuable co-products more cost-effectively than corn-based processors with plants located closer to biomass sources. Xethanol owns and operates an ethanol production facility at its Biomass Technology Center in Iowa that processes fermentable sugars derived from food biomass as its primary feedstock. Xethanol has also recently acquired a 6-million-gallon-per-year plant near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, now operating as Xethanol BioFuels, LLC.
About National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation's premier laboratory for renewable energy research and development and a leading laboratory for energy efficiency research and development. NREL is the principal research laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and is managed for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle. For more information about NREL, please visit its website at http://www.nrel.gov/ .
About UTEK Corporation
UTEK is a leading, market-driven technology transfer company that enables public companies to rapidly acquire innovative technologies from universities and research laboratories. UTEK is the only company that facilitates the identification and acquisition of external technologies for clients in exchange for their equity securities, while allowing research institutions to receive 100% of the royalties. This unique process is called U2B(R). UTEK transfers proprietary technologies with potential commercial applications to companies seeking product differentiation, resulting in a strategic marketplace advantage. For more information about UTEK, please visit its website at http://www.utekcorp.com/ .
Forward-Looking Statements
The information contained in this news release, other than historical information, consists of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. Such statements regarding the timing of acquiring and developing new properties, of bringing them on line and of deriving revenues and profits from them, as well as the effects of those revenues and profits on the company's margins, debt service and financial position, are uncertain because many of the factors affecting the timing of those items are beyond the company's control. These and other factors are discussed in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including its recent filings on Form 8-K.
Xethanol CorporationCONTACT: Malcolm McGuire, C.C.R.I. Corp., +1-800-828-0406, for XethanolCorporation