VANCOUVER, Jan. 31, 2013 /CNW/ - Lignol Energy Corporation (TSXV: LEC) ("LEC" or "the Company"), a
leading technology company in the advanced biofuels and renewable
chemicals sector, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary,
Lignol Innovations Ltd. ("LIL") has secured a commercial supply
agreement with a market leader in the sustainable thermoplastics
industry.
The agreement provides for the supply of LIL's proprietary HP-LTM lignin to a European company, a global leader in sustainable
thermoplastics, as an ingredient in its commercial products.
Previously Lignol had delivered trial samples which were used for
formulation development, customer evaluation and product trials. LIL
will supply tonnage quantities of HP-L lignin for this supply agreement
and anticipates working with this customer on other product
applications, building upon this initial business success.
"Our ability to attract commercial business for HP-L lignin with a
global leader in the sustainable thermoplastics sector is a major step
towards commercial deployment of our technology", said President and
Chief Executive Officer, Ross MacLachlan. "This order in the
thermoplastics field complements our own development efforts with the
use of HP-L lignin in proprietary polymer applications."
LIL is engaged in a wide range of application development projects with
the products derived from its biorefinery technology at values that are
expected to provide attractive returns for commercial projects. Most
companies in the cellulosic biorefining sector realize only the thermal
value for lignin in the range of 5 cents per pound since they burn the
lignin fraction (about 25% of the biomass) to provide energy for their
process. Conversely, LIL's proprietary HP-L lignin can be sold for
significantly higher values when incorporated into many core products
of the chemical industry, such as coatings, resins, binders and
thermoplastics.
About Lignol Energy Corporation ("LEC")
LEC (TSXV: LEC) owns 100% of the issued and voting shares of Lignol
Innovations Ltd. ("LIL") and currently owns a 14.9% stake in Australian
Renewable Fuels Ltd (ASX: ARW). LEC also intends to invest in, or
otherwise obtain, equity interests in energy related projects which
have synergies with its biorefining technology.
LIL is a leading technology company in the advanced biofuels and
renewable chemicals sector undertaking the development of biorefining
technologies for the production of advanced biofuels, including
fuel-grade ethanol, and other renewable chemicals from non-food
cellulosic biomass feedstocks. LIL's modified solvent based
pre-treatment technology facilitates the rapid, high-yield conversion
of cellulose to ethanol and the production of value-added biochemical
co-products, including high purity HP-LTM lignins. HP-LTM lignin represents a new class of high purity lignin extractives (and
their subsequent derivatives) which can be engineered to meet the
chemical properties and functional requirements of a range of
industrial applications that until now has not been possible with
traditional lignin byproducts generated from other processes. LIL is
executing on its development plan through strategic partnerships to
further develop and integrate its core technologies on a commercial
scale. For more information please visit Lignol's website at www.lignol.ca.
ARW is the largest biodiesel producer in Australia owning three plants
with a total nameplate capacity of 150 million litres per annum. ARW's
three plants were built at an aggregate cost of approximately A$150
million. ARW has made significant changes in recent years to become a
cost effective producer of high quality biodiesel to address growing
biofuel demand in the Australian market. ARW has recently announced a
proposed transaction to raise A$14 million in cash, which if successful
will dilute LEC's interest to approximately 10 percent. More
information on ARW can be found at their website; www.arfuels.com.au.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as
that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange)
accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Caution concerning forward-looking statements:
Certain statements contained in this document may constitute
forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities
laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include, without
limitation, statements or information about LIL's ability to meet the
terms and conditions of the thermoplastics industry related supply
agreement, to enter into additional commercial supply agreements for
HP-L lignin, FIRB approval and the Company's plans with respect to its
investment in ARW, the proposed transaction recently announced by ARW
and the potential resulting change to LEC's equity interest in ARW, the
Company's ability to continue as a going concern and to raise
additional financing to fund the operations of LEC and LIL, the
development status of LIL's fully integrated pilot scale biorefinery in
Burnaby, British Columbia, the planning and development of a commercial
plant, LIL's ability to complete project deliverables which are funded
in part by government agencies, obtaining strategic partnership
investments and government funding for initial commercial projects.
Often, but not always, forward looking statements or information can be
identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not
expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates",
"forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or
"believes" or variations of such words and phrases or words and phrases
that state or indicate that certain actions, events or results "may",
"could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.
Such statements or information reflect LEC's current views with respect
to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and
assumptions including, without limitation, our ability to establish the
validity of LIL's technology at the fully integrated biorefinery pilot
plant scale, LIL's ability to satisfy the conditions of existing
government grants and to obtain new additional grants, our ability to
continue to finance our operations and to finance and complete the
development of a commercial project, LIL's ability to work with
Novozymes to produce cellulosic ethanol at production costs competitive
with gasoline and corn ethanol, LIL's ability to develop products and
to obtain off-take agreements, our ability to obtain requisite
regulatory approvals and our ability to enter into agreements with
strategic partners on terms acceptable to us, the inability to
influence the strategy, operations and financial performance of ARW,
the reliance on publicly available information of ARW in the Company's
evaluation of its acquisition of shares in ARW, the potential inability
to divest the ARW ordinary shares due to modest trading volumes, the
cost of future ARW capital investment, the fluctuation of biodiesel and
feedstock prices on ARW, the effect on ARW of changes in government
policy relating to the environment, and incentives for renewable fuels.
Many factors could cause LEC's actual results, performance or
achievements to be materially different from any future results,
performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements or information, including among other
things, the technological challenges that remain to be surpassed in
obtaining the necessary operating data from Lignol's fully integrated
biorefinery pilot plant that is required prior to completing the next
scale-up of the technology, financial market conditions which will
impact our ability to finance our operations and to finance the
construction and operation of a commercial plant, the price of gasoline
and demand for ethanol, the market pricing and demand for renewable
chemicals, risks relating to the protection of Lignol's core technology
from infringement and those risk factors which are discussed elsewhere
in documents that LEC files from time to time with securities
regulatory authorities. Should one or more of these risks or
uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the
forward-looking statements or information prove incorrect, actual
results may vary materially from those described herein as intended
planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Except as
required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any intention or
obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements and
information whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise. All written and oral forward-looking statements and
information attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are
expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary
statements.
SOURCE: Lignol Energy Corporation
