Message #55 From:
NewsBot Date: November 13, 2006 09:14:00 AM
GSHF News GS AgriFuels Acquires Stake in ZeroPoint Clean Tech, Inc.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GS AgriFuels Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: GSGF) today announced its
acquisition of about 10% of ZeroPoint Clean Tech, Inc. (“ZeroPoint”)
for $2.5 million. ZeroPoint is a development stage company
commercializing patent-pending and proprietary biomass gasification,
gas-to-liquids, gas processing and fuel reforming, and evaporation
technologies.
Under the terms of GS AgriFuels’ investment
agreements with ZeroPoint, GS AgriFuels also received an option to
purchase another 4% of ZeroPoint and Thomas Scozzafava, GS AgriFuels’
president and chief operating officer, was appointed to the ZeroPoint
board of directors.
ZeroPoint’s Biomass Gasifier is designed to
standardize variable cellulosic and other biomass feedstocks and
optimize high yields of high-quality syngas in real-time with greatly
increased capital and operating cost efficiencies at much smaller scales
as compared to traditional gasification technologies.
The syngas output of ZeroPoint’s gasifier can
either be used to generate electricity in a standard gas-fired generator
or catalyzed into liquid fuels such as ethanol, methanol or synthetic
diesel with the Fischer-Tropsch process.
When biomass is heated with little oxygen needed for efficient
combustion, the biomass breaks apart into its molecular constituents, or
it gasifies, into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas
called synthesis gas, or syngas. This is similar to the process
that occurs with wood in a fireplace. As the wood becomes very hot, it
gives off its volatile gases – syngas –
and it falls apart into a relatively low volume of ash. Because there is
an open flame and ample free oxygen, the syngas emitted by wood in a
fireplace combusts immediately and produces fire.
Gasification converts carbonaceous materials into syngas, and a
biomass gasifier is a system that can gasify biomass such as wood waste,
municipal waste, or agriproducts into syngas. Importantly, syngas
produced in a biomass gasification process can be converted into liquid
fuels and other products through a catalytic chemical reaction called
the Fischer-Tropsch process.
To date, the most significant resistance to wide-scale use of biomass
gasification has been the requirement to customize gasifiers for the
specifics of each individual application. This is because different
forms of biomass have different sizes shapes, densities, moisture
contents, cellulosic structures and gasification and devolitization
characteristics. Customization requirements and the practicality of
gasifying variable feeds have typically constrained gasifiers to larger
scale, capital intensive designs.
Mr. Scozzafava said that “We believe that the
ZeroPoint technology is the most cost effective commercially viable
technology available for producing cellulosic ethanol and other biomass
derived liquid fuels. ZeroPoint’s gasifier is
scalable and very robust – it can readily
accommodate variable biomass feedstocks while still achieving its
production goals, and we plan to rely on the technology extensively as
we develop our agrifuel production facilities.”
ZeroPoint has successfully demonstrated the capabilities of its
technologies in a small scale pilot processing plant and it is currently
building a commercial scale pilot plant based on its technologies at
Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.
GS AgriFuels’ sister company, GS CleanTech
Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: GSCT), recently entered into an
agreement with ZeroPoint for the exclusive rights to distribute ZeroPoint’s
technology in the North American corn ethanol production industry.
About ZeroPoint Clean Technology, Inc.
ZeroPoint Clean Technology is commercializing patent pending and
proprietary gasification, gas to liquids and fuel reforming technology
that ZeroPoint believes is the most effective technology available for
use in gasifying biomass to create carbon-neutral energy (gas,
electricity, ethanol, diesel substitutes and hydrogen), clean water and
other valuable products. ZeroPoint’s
technology is well suited for distributed deployments, making it highly
applicable to the localized nature of many global sources of biomass
feedstock. ZeroPoint believes that its commercial offerings are highly
valuable to the rapidly growing global, renewable energy industry.
ZeroPoint is a part of the Golden Technology Management portfolio.
About GS AgriFuels Corporation
GS AgriFuels was founded to produce and sell clean fuels from
agriproducts in innovative ways. GS AgriFuels’
business model is based on the manufacturing and sales of proprietary
biodiesel equipment and the use of new technologies to produce biodiesel
and ethanol from non-traditional feedstocks such as corn oil and
cellulosic biomass through the utilization of several new proprietary
technologies, including innovative desiccation, process intensification,
gasification, catalytic, and carbon capture technologies,
synergistically at small-scales to enable the refining of many forms of
biomass into clean fuels at Integrated Multi-Fuel (“IMF”)
production facilities.
GS AgriFuels is majority owned by GreenShift Corporation (OTC Bulletin
Board: GSHF), a company devoted to facilitating the efficient use of
natural resources.
GS AgriFuels is party to a merger agreement with, GS Energy Corporation
(OTC Bulletin Board: GSEG), another majority held GreenShift company,
pursuant to which holders of GS Energy common stock will receive 1 share
of GS AgriFuels common stock for each 1,000 shares owned in GS Energy,
for a total of about 2.5 million new shares of GS AgriFuels common
stock. GS AgriFuels will be the surviving entity of this merger and is
expected to have about 31 million shares of common stock outstanding and
no shares of preferred stock outstanding.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains statements that may constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of
1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements include
statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of GS
AgriFuels Corporation, and members of their management as well as the
assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors
are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties,
and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by
such forward-looking statements. Important factors currently known to
management that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those in forward-statements include fluctuation of operating results,
the ability to compete successfully and the ability to complete
before-mentioned transactions. The company undertakes no obligation to
update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed
assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future
operating results.