VANCOUVER, March 11, 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 it has
subscribed for convertible notes with a principal value of A$1.18
million ("Notes") issued by Territory Biofuels Limited ("TBF") and
signed a Technology Collaboration Agreement that includes a package of
technical and further assistance to aid in the restart of TBF's 150
million litre per year biodiesel plant and glycerine refinery located
in Darwin, Australia.
The terms of the Notes provide for conversion into an equity position
for LEC of between 20% to 40% in TBF, depending on a range of criteria
related to the development of the Darwin facility. This investment will
be funded, in part, from Lignol's recently announced line of credit
with its major shareholder, Difference Capital Funding Ltd. The terms
of the Technology Collaboration Agreement provide for technical
assistance from Lignol and its partners with respect to both the
restart of the facility and the potential integration of new
pretreatment technologies and catalysts to facilitate the processing of
a broad range of low cost feedstocks.
"We are proud to be working with TBF on this important, large scale
project", said Ross MacLachlan, Chairman and CEO of LEC. "The Darwin
plant is an impressive industrial facility and the TBF team has
developed a compelling business model with strong commercial
partnerships with which to become a major regional player in the
biodiesel market in the Pacific Rim. This transaction reinforces the
commitment to our strategy of selective investments in energy related
projects which have synergies with our Company and have the potential
to generate near term cash flow."
"Lignol's financial investment and support from its partners is an
important step in the restart of our world class facility", said Chris
Hart, Chairman of TBF. "Having toured the Lignol facilities and met
with their scientists, engineers and partners, I am also confident that
our new technology collaboration will assist in an efficient
recommissioning of our project and lead to the implementation of
advanced technologies that maximize plant performance."
About Territory Biofuels Limited ("TBF")
TBF owns a large scale biorefining facility located in Darwin, Northern
Territory, Australia, which includes a Lurgi designed biodiesel plant
and the only glycerine refinery in Australia. The facility was
commissioned in 2008 at a cost of A$80 million, along with 38 million
litres of related tankage, now leased by TBF. The biodiesel plant is
the largest in Australia with a maximum capacity of 150 million litres
per year. Originally built to run on food-grade vegetable oil, the
plant was shut down in 2009 due to feedstock constraints. TBF intends
to restart the existing facility utilizing feedstocks such as tallow
and used cooking oil and then plans to integrate new feedstock
pre-treatment technologies and catalysts to process a broader range of
feedstocks such as lower quality tallow and palm sludge oil (PSO); a
waste product from palm oil mill extraction. TBF has established
trading relationships with its shipping, off-take and feedstock
partners which will allow it to profitably start up and operate the
facility.
About Lignol Energy Corporation ("LEC")
LEC (TSXV: LEC) owns 100% of the issued and voting shares of Lignol
Innovations Ltd. ("LIL") and has interests in both Australian Renewable
Fuels Ltd. (ASX: ARW) ("ARW") and Territory Biofuels Ltd. ("TBF"). LEC
also intends to invest in, or otherwise obtain, equity interests in
energy related projects which have synergies with the Company and have
the potential to generate near term cash flow.
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 lignin. 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 by-products 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.
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 the outcome of factors
influencing the future conversion of LEC's Notes into an equity
position for LEC of between 20% to 40% in TBF depending on a range of
criteria related to the Darwin facility, TBF's ability to restart and
profitably operate its 150 million litre per year biodiesel plant and
glycerine refinery, TBF's ability to work with strong commercial
partnerships and to become a major regional player in the biodiesel
market in the Pacific Rim, TBF's ability to integrate new pretreatment
technologies and catalysts to facilitate the processing of a broad
range of low cost feedstocks, the successful outcome of projects
undertaken under the Technology Collaboration between LEC and TBF, the
success of the recently proposed transaction announced by ARW to raise
A$12.3 million and the resulting change to the LEC equity interest in
ARW, LEC's ability to complete the acquisition of additional shares of
ARW, LEC's ability to invest in, or otherwise obtain, equity interests
in energy related projects which have synergies with the Company and
which have the potential to generate near term cash flow and to pay
dividends, LEC'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 Lignol'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, LIL's ability to obtain requisite
regulatory approvals and its ability to enter into agreements with
strategic partners on terms acceptable to us, the inability of LEC to
influence the strategy, operations and financial performance of ARW,
the reliance on publically 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, and the ability of ARW to generate short term cash
flow and pay dividends. 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 LIL'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 LIL'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
