Comstock, EFT sign technology-cooperation agreement
Comstock Inc. announced Dec. 23 that its wholly owned subsidiary, Comstock IP Holdings LLC, has executed a technology-cooperation agreement (TCA) with Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Emerging Fuels Technology Inc.
Under this agreement, Comstock and EFT will enter into a master-license agreement, supported by ongoing EFT technical development, to integrate EFT’s gas-to-liquids process (GTL) into Comstock’s renewable fuel solutions.
The integrated system will be able to capture and convert carbon emissions into “emissions-derived renewable fuels” (EDF) that further extends Comstock’s renewable fuel yields, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
All commercialization of existing and future Comstock Fuels Corp.’s renewable fuel technologies, including those developed through this partnership, will be managed exclusively by Comstock.
“Ken, Mark and EFT are leading fuel innovators—and producers—and one of our most trusted technical partners and supporters for many, many years, and true leaders in innovating and deploying gas-to-liquids solutions,” said David Winsness, president of Comstock Fuels. “Integrating the EFT process with our already market-leading yields enables a significant increase in our SAF production goals, while further reducing carbon intensities. Extending our system with EFT is a very natural evolution.”
Comstock said its process involves:
Solvolytic digestion and fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass.
Bioconversion of cellulose into cellulosic ethanol.
Esterification of lignin and other derivatives into Bioleum Oil.
Hydrodeoxygenation of Bioleum Oil into Hydrodeoxygenated Bioleum Oil.
Refining of the resulting intermediates into ASTM-compliant fuels.
These processes can produce up to 125 gallons of renewable fuel per dry metric ton of feedstock, according to Comstock, depending on feedstock, lignin content, site conditions, and other process parameters, with carbon-intensity scores of 15 or less.
Integrating EFT’s GTL process to convert Comstock’s process emissions has the potential to increase Comstock’s bulk biomass conversion yields to more than 140 gasoline-gallon equivalent and approximately 70 percent of the theoretical maximum yield from most forms of woody biomass, the company stated.
“Comstock’s yields and recent progress are extremely impressive,” said Kenneth Agee, founder and president of EFT. “Using woody biomass to produce circular fuels has the potential to make a major contribution to decarbonizing global mobility and this TCA and collaboration with the Comstock team is a great application of our technology for the production of premium synthetic Fischer-Tropsch fuels. We share similar ambitions of accelerating the production of renewable fuels with low- or negative-carbon intensity on a cost-competitive basis, and we’re excited to get to work.”
Kevin Kreisler, Comstock’s chief technology officer, added, “Process-emissions capture and utilization will meaningfully enhance our commercialization impact. Our innovations and engineering teams have designed our processes to maximize quality, yield, throughput, and profitability while relying on robust TRL 9 systems to mitigate scaling risks. Still, upwards of 20 percent of our feedstock value would otherwise be lost to process emissions. Converting even a portion of those losses into additional yield with EFT’s proven commercial solution enables us to and accelerate the rate that the market adopts our combined offering and produce globally meaningful quantities of new energy.”
