VANCOUVER, March 11, 2013 /CNW/ - Lignol Energy Corporation
(TSXV: LEC) ("LEC" or "the Company"), a leading technology company
in the advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals sector, today
announced that it has subscribed for convertible notes with a
principal value of A$1.18 million
("Notes") issued by Territory Biofuels Limited ("TBF") and signed a
Technology Collaboration Agreement that includes a package of
technical and further assistance to aid in the restart of TBF's 150
million litre per year biodiesel plant and glycerine refinery
located in Darwin, Australia.
The terms of the Notes provide for conversion
into an equity position for LEC of between 20% to 40% in TBF,
depending on a range of criteria related to the development of the
Darwin facility. This investment will be funded, in part, from
Lignol's recently announced line of credit with its major
shareholder, Difference Capital Funding Ltd. The terms of the
Technology Collaboration Agreement provide for technical assistance
from Lignol and its partners with respect to both the restart of
the facility and the potential integration of new pretreatment
technologies and catalysts to facilitate the processing of a broad
range of low cost feedstocks.
"We are proud to be working with TBF on this
important, large scale project", said Ross
MacLachlan, Chairman and CEO of LEC. "The Darwin plant is an
impressive industrial facility and the TBF team has developed a
compelling business model with strong commercial partnerships with
which to become a major regional player in the biodiesel market in
the Pacific Rim. This transaction
reinforces the commitment to our strategy of selective investments
in energy related projects which have synergies with our Company
and have the potential to generate near term cash flow."
"Lignol's financial investment and support from
its partners is an important step in the restart of our world class
facility", said Chris Hart, Chairman
of TBF. "Having toured the Lignol facilities and met with their
scientists, engineers and partners, I am also confident that our
new technology collaboration will assist in an efficient
recommissioning of our project and lead to the implementation of
advanced technologies that maximize plant performance."
About Territory Biofuels Limited
("TBF")
TBF owns a large scale biorefining facility
located in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, which includes a Lurgi designed
biodiesel plant and the only glycerine refinery in Australia. The facility was commissioned
in 2008 at a cost of A$80 million,
along with 38 million litres of related tankage, now leased by TBF.
The biodiesel plant is the largest in Australia with a maximum capacity of 150
million litres per year. Originally built to run on food-grade
vegetable oil, the plant was shut down in 2009 due to feedstock
constraints. TBF intends to restart the existing facility utilizing
feedstocks such as tallow and used cooking oil and then plans to
integrate new feedstock pre-treatment technologies and catalysts to
process a broader range of feedstocks such as lower quality tallow
and palm sludge oil (PSO); a waste product from palm oil mill
extraction. TBF has established trading relationships with its
shipping, off-take and feedstock partners which will allow it to
profitably start up and operate the facility.
About Lignol Energy Corporation
("LEC")
LEC (TSXV: LEC) owns 100% of the issued and
voting shares of Lignol Innovations Ltd. ("LIL") and has interests
in both Australian Renewable Fuels Ltd. (ASX: ARW) ("ARW") and
Territory Biofuels Ltd. ("TBF"). LEC also intends to invest in, or
otherwise obtain, equity interests in energy related projects which
have synergies with the Company and have the potential to generate
near term cash flow.
LIL is a leading technology company in the
advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals sector undertaking the
development of biorefining technologies for the production of
advanced biofuels, including fuel-grade ethanol, and other
renewable chemicals from non-food cellulosic biomass feedstocks.
LIL's modified solvent based pre-treatment technology facilitates
the rapid, high-yield conversion of cellulose to ethanol and the
production of value-added biochemical co-products, including high
purity HP-LTM lignin. HP-LTM lignin
represents a new class of high purity lignin extractives (and their
subsequent derivatives) which can be engineered to meet the
chemical properties and functional requirements of a range of
industrial applications that until now has not been possible with
traditional lignin by-products generated from other processes. LIL
is executing on its development plan through strategic partnerships
to further develop and integrate its core technologies on a
commercial scale. For more information please visit Lignol's
website at www.lignol.ca.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for
the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Caution concerning forward-looking
statements:
Certain statements contained in this document may constitute
forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable
securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information
include, without limitation, statements or information about the
outcome of factors influencing the future conversion of LEC's Notes
into an equity position for LEC of between 20% to 40% in TBF
depending on a range of criteria related to the Darwin facility,
TBF's ability to restart and profitably operate its 150 million
litre per year biodiesel plant and glycerine refinery, TBF's
ability to work with strong commercial partnerships and to become a
major regional player in the biodiesel market in the Pacific Rim, TBF's ability to integrate new
pretreatment technologies and catalysts to facilitate the
processing of a broad range of low cost feedstocks, the successful
outcome of projects undertaken under the Technology Collaboration
between LEC and TBF, the success of the recently proposed
transaction announced by ARW to raise A$12.3
million and the resulting change to the LEC equity interest
in ARW, LEC's ability to complete the acquisition of additional
shares of ARW, LEC's ability to invest in, or otherwise obtain,
equity interests in energy related projects which have synergies
with the Company and which have the potential to generate near term
cash flow and to pay dividends, LEC's ability to continue as a
going concern and to raise additional financing to fund the
operations of LEC and LIL, the development status of LIL's fully
integrated pilot scale biorefinery in Burnaby, British Columbia, the planning and
development of a commercial plant, LIL's ability to complete
project deliverables which are funded in part by government
agencies, obtaining strategic partnership investments and
government funding for initial commercial projects. Often, but not
always, forward looking statements or information can be identified
by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not
expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates",
"forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or
"believes" or variations of such words and phrases or words and
phrases that state or indicate that certain actions, events or
results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur
or be achieved.
Such statements or information reflect LEC's
current views with respect to future events and are subject to
certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions including, without
limitation, our ability to establish the validity of Lignol's
technology at the fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant scale,
LIL's ability to satisfy the conditions of existing government
grants and to obtain new additional grants, our ability to continue
to finance our operations and to finance and complete the
development of a commercial project, LIL's ability to work with
Novozymes to produce cellulosic ethanol at production costs
competitive with gasoline and corn ethanol, LIL's ability to
develop products and to obtain off-take agreements, LIL's ability
to obtain requisite regulatory approvals and its ability to enter
into agreements with strategic partners on terms acceptable to us,
the inability of LEC to influence the strategy, operations and
financial performance of ARW, the reliance on publically available
information of ARW in the Company's evaluation of its acquisition
of shares in ARW, the potential inability to divest the ARW
ordinary shares due to modest trading volumes, the cost of future
ARW capital investment, the fluctuation of biodiesel and feedstock
prices on ARW, the effect on ARW of changes in government policy
relating to the environment, and incentives for renewable fuels,
and the ability of ARW to generate short term cash flow and pay
dividends. Many factors could cause LEC's actual results,
performance or achievements to be materially different from any
future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed
or implied by such forward-looking statements or information,
including among other things, the technological challenges that
remain to be surpassed in obtaining the necessary operating data
from LIL's fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant that is
required prior to completing the next scale-up of the technology,
financial market conditions which will impact our ability to
finance our operations and to finance the construction and
operation of a commercial plant, the price of gasoline and demand
for ethanol, the market pricing and demand for renewable chemicals,
risks relating to the protection of LIL's core technology from
infringement and those risk factors which are discussed elsewhere
in documents that LEC files from time to time with securities
regulatory authorities. Should one or more of these risks or
uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the
forward-looking statements or information prove incorrect, actual
results may vary materially from those described herein as intended
planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Except as
required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any intention or
obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements and
information whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise. All written and oral forward-looking statements and
information attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are
expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary
statements.
SOURCE Lignol Energy Corporation