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Mar 1 2009, 4:47 PM EST (current) jimmiller5417 839 words added
Mar 1 2009, 4:47 PM EST jimmiller5417

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Dear Mr Miller,
This is (Mr) Janos THESZ from Budapest/Hungary. I am a chemist and co-inventor of a novel biofuel ("TBK-Biodiesel") and pertaining technology, which in 2007 has won a dozen or so awards in various salons of inventions all over the world, the most precious being the Gold Medal of the Geneva International Exhibition (held annually under the auspices of IFIA, that is the International Federation of Inventors' Association). Also, ours was the "Invention of the Year 2007" in Hungary.
On account of the recent setback of the biodieselissue -- owing to the "fuel versus food"debate -- your algae-derived oil is of distinctive importance. But if you apply this triglyceride source along with our process, theendeavour will be "unbeatable", yielding extra profits tothe producer of this new biofuel.
According to our invention we get 15-20% more fuel out of a given amount of vegetable oil than traditional biodiesel producers, that is we require 15-20% less arable land /volume of algae to produce a unit of fuel. And all this we attain in an ecologically friendly manner, without formation of glycerol, with no washings and no sewage.
We produce a novel kind of biodiesel from the same starting materials as traditional biodiesel producers (that is we also use various triglycerides as starters), but we usea novelapproach to fragment the viscuous oils/fats into reduced molecular mass substances: via transesterification with esters of short-chain fatty acids we partially exchange the long fatty acidmoieties bound to the glycerol backbone for short ones, whereby we produce a mixture of chemically modified triglycerides (with reduced molecular masses and subsequently reduced viscosities) and the alkyl-esters of displaced fatty acids (that is present "biodiesel"):


CH2-OCO-L O N GCH2-OCO- SHORT II CH - OCO-L O N G + SHORT-COO-Et-->CH - OCO-L O N G + LONG-COO-Et
II CH2-OCO-L O N GCH2-OCO-L O N G


Our international patent is pending (WO2008096187, abstract attached).
The scheme depicts a 33 1/3 % exchange of long chains for short ones, but depending on the viscosity to be attained (5-6 cSt), further replacement of long chains can be effected. So there is no glycerol formation, no washings, no sewage, but each and every atom of the biomass is utilizedfor fuel purposes. We get an extra 10% mass of fuel out of a given amount of feedstock after the exchange of each third of the original (long) chains. The internal oxygen content ofour fuelis about 30% higher than that of FAME, affording better combustion properties, better emission profile, less soot, etc. Moreover, in every case our product has a lower iodine-number than the corresponding FAME (owing to "dilution" of double-bonds), yieldinggreater resistance to oxidative degradations. We have improved cold-properties (on account of the presence of reduced molecular mass triglycerides), our volumetric energy density is 4-5% higher than that of FAME, and so on. Our production costs are 8-10% lower, we can utilize glycerol-wastes of traditional BD processes as feedstock, we can work in traditional BD plants, etc. So our stuff has half a dozen or so such merits, which considered even individually, should call for the immediate replacement of traditional "Biodiesel". And to top it all, our transesterifying agent ethyl acetate is a 100% green reagent -- manufactured for example through dehydrogenation of fermentation ethanol.
An additional "knack" of our process is the way we make use of oil residues of pressed cakes (usually with still 7-9% oil content): we can extract them with ethyl acetate itself(as it is miscible with oils, contrary to methanol/ethanol) and after addition of catalyst to this mixture our reaction is started. (So we can omit the not so cheap "hexane-extraction" step, again improving on economics).
Please see my attachment for comparison of the reaction products of traditional biodiesel and TBK-Biodiesel.
Moreover, as we all (should) know, traditional biodiesel (FAME) is NOT a totally green fuel on account of its "methanolic" part, as methanol is fossil-derived (produced via oxidation of methane). Noris the so-called second generation biodiesel (arrived at e.g. bythe Finnish "NExBTL" process) a really renewable fuel, as the hydrogen used excessively in the process is manufactured industrially through the oxidation of methane/propane/butane, again fossils, whose very replacement should be the sole concern of a really green economy.

Similarly, hydrogenating your algae oil would produce paraffins (oxygen content is lost), quite akin to fossil gasoline/diesel oil, thus again with inferior emission profiles to biodiesel (emission issues having been one reason for promoting biodiesel initially).

So such being the case, ourcombustible is the only real 100% bio (green/renewable) substitute of petrodiesel to date, and as such may I draw your kind attention to it, aswe feel that joining forces with you would even render most of the the so-called second generation biofuels (still in their infancies) uneconomical, thus unfeasible for good.

So to that end we are thinking of cooperating with your esteemed company, aiming at mutual benefits.We have some preliminary motor test results, the completeevaluation of our fuel is under way.

Please kindly indicate your interest.
Restpectfully yours,
J. Thesz
T: (+36) 1 22 63 702