Meridian Waste Solutions, Inc., a vertically integrated, non-hazardous solid waste services company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Meridian Innovations LLC, announced its exclusive licensing of the patented AST-Organosolv Process Technology from American Science and Technology Corporation (AST).
Under the terms of its agreement, Meridian Innovations will have an exclusive commercial license to the AST patents and a lease for the AST biomass processing facility in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Meridian Innovations is confident that, using the AST technology alongside Meridian Innovations’ process engineering and biomaterial development resources, a sustainable commercial bio-refining industry can be immediately launched.
The Meridian technology platform is largely in response to the current inefficiencies and outdated technology used in the pulp and paper industry. While the industry has prospered using clean process technologies and sustainable land management practices, its core technology is more than 100 years old and unable to implement efficient separation and bio-refining upgrades. The current antiquated pulp and paper processing methods are designed to only recover and sell about 50 percent of the processed biomass into high-value applications, meaning that the remaining 50 percent must be incinerated to recover and recycle the sodium-based solvents.
In contrast to traditional pulping processes, AST uses organic solvents to separate the biomass into fractions in lieu of sodium-based solvents. These organic solvents can be efficiently recovered and reused without incineration, allowing for the recovery of nearly 100 percent of the biomass constituents. The cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin can all be recovered and converted into high-value materials whereas traditional methods only recover cellulose.
One such high-value opportunity is created via AST’s ability to recover and produce a unique melt-flowing form of lignin. The production of a melt-flowing form of lignin is a major breakthrough that allows an otherwise under-valued lignin stream to capitalize on a host of new market opportunities that were previously thought too difficult to explore. As an example, when used as a high-performance resin extender in thermoplastics, lignin brings a value of $600 to $2,000 per ton, depending on the performance requirements, substantially greater than the $50 per ton value when incinerated.
Furthermore, Meridian’s process engineers are able to cost-effectively build biomass processing systems that range in capacity from 200 to 2,000 tons per day. As cellulose content and scale are no longer business constraints, Meridian can build and locate processing systems that reach a wider variety of feedstock opportunities such as peanut shells, rice hulls, corn stover, cotton stems, peach pits, perennial grasses, woody biomass and other crop residuals.
Published in the January 2018 Edition