Whitefox, Pacific Ethanol sign agreement for delivery of industrial scale membrane system

Whitefox (http://www.whitefox.com ), the clean fuel membrane specialist, announced today that it has signed an agreement with California based Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (Nasdaq: PEIX) for the delivery of an industrial scale membrane system. The objective is to reduce the consumption of water, energy and emissions in the production of ethanol while increasing product output.

This project is fully aligned with California's push to cut water consumption and reduce emissions, which is affecting both Californian ethanol producers and companies wanting to export ethanol into California.

According to the agreement, Whitefox will deliver a stand-alone, container based, membrane system that will be deployed at Pacific Ethanol's Madera plant in California. The Whitefox system is scheduled for delivery this month with commissioning and start-up in June.

The membrane unit will be used to assess the impact of treating certain side streams in the ethanol production process and optimise the design of a membrane solution to remove bottlenecks and improve ethanol production efficiency at the Madera plant.

In a statement Whitefox's CEO Gillian Harrison said: "We are very excited about the opportunity to work with Pacific Ethanol. When I met CEO Neil Koehler last November, I was impressed by the company's efforts to lead the way in the production of low-carbon renewable fuels. It is clear that Pacific Ethanol is investing in energy and water consumption reduction initiatives because it makes environmental sense, but also because it makes good business sense as it improves plant efficiencies. We are confident that Whitefox's membrane solution will contribute to Pacific Ethanol's ambitious targets and look forward to working together."

Dr Stephan Blum, Whitefox CTO said in a statement: "Existing ethanol producers are dealing with a number of issues in the ethanol production process: One challenge is cooling water during hot and humid summer months when output capacity is sometimes reduced to maintain product specifications. Another challenge is the constant recycle of water-rich ethanol that consumes additional energy and prevents plants from operating at their full capacity potential. These challenges can be addressed with a membrane solution that give producers a more reliable and efficient operation".