According to a report published late this past month by Biofuels Digest, Miami, Fla., USA, Hamrick Engineering (Verona, Va.) has been granted a broad patent for extracting sugars and nanocellulose from lignocellulosic biomass by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The U.S. Patent office granted U.S. Patent App. 14/608,183 titled Methods and systems for producing sugars from carbohydrate-rich substrates and issued U.S. Patent Number 9,194,012. This new technology uses an environmentally benign technique of vacuum infusion of hydrolysis catalysts into biomass.

The Digest reported that Hamrick Engineering is also in the final stages of validating related patent-pending vacuum infusion technologies, including technologies for in-field fermentation of sugar cane, sugar beet and sweet sorghum. These technologies are currently fermenting more than 90% of the sugar in these crops without requiring crushing or hot water. In addition to pushing nanocellulose production further towards the cost of commercial production, these patents and others like them recently granted to API (Atlanta, Ga., USA) create dual materials that can bring in profits for the industry as the sugars can be fermented or otherwise transformed into biofuels.