The Rice Straw / Hulls Technology basic process is as follows:

• Rice straw/hulls pass through a shredder
  
  
• Shredded material passes to a steam explosion where dilute sulfuric acid is added to the material
  
  
• The material then passes to a counter current extractor contain NaOH solution. This process will place the silica and the lignin in solution
  
  
• The lignin-silicate solution passes to our ultrafiltration system where the silicate solution passes through the membrane and the lignin solution is concentrated
  
  
• The material leaving the counter-current extractor is washed and hydrolyzed, fermented and converted to fuel ethanol, or
  
  
• The lignin fuel separated by the ultrafiltration system is used to provide energy for the operation of the plant.

Comparisons between our system and traditional spiral wound membrane systems

A spiral wound membrane, both RO and UF; this increases the surface area of the membrane winding a membrane/separator system into the shape of a log. Due to the membrane/separator proximities spiral wound membranes are “plugged” by particulate matter in the feed liquid.

The CBGY system differs from the spiral wound systems by placing the membrane directly in contact with the feed liquid and pumping this feed liquid at a high flow rate. This flow rate acts to “sweep” the membrane and prevents “plugging.”

The niche that CBGY systems can fill is its ability to filter thixotropic (viscous) Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids. For example, CBGY UF system can take tomato juice (Newtonian liquid) and by removing the water, produce tomato paste (non-Newtonian liquid.)

Potential applications of the CBGY reverse osmosis/ultrafiltration systems are:

• Metal Finishing: Chromic Acid, Copper Pyrophosphate, Nickel Sulfamate, Nickel Fluoborate, Zinc Chloride;
  
  
• Water Soluble Oil & Synthetic Lubricant Coolants: Removal from waste water, 99.9% recovery;
  
  
• Latex and Latex Paint (Wash water); Concentration & Recovery, Purification of Water for reuse;
  
  
• Sea and Brackish Water (Desalination): Single stage sea and brackish water conversion to potable water for off-shore operations, hotels, islands, and exploration sites;
  
  
• Food, Dairy, and Beverage: Cottage and Cheddar Cheese Whey, Soy and other protein Extractions, Milk, Citrus and other Juice Concentrates, By-Product Recovery (Currently FTC’s RO/UF is not Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved, but all materials have been approved by the FDA and a minimum of expense and effort will be required to get FDA approval.)
  
  
• Pulp and Paper: Water Recovery & Reuse, Removal of Color and other BOD, Recovery & Concentration of Other By-Products, Separation of Polysaccharides from Lignosulfonates, “Black Liquor” recovery of Processing Chemicals & Concentration of Lignin;
  
  
• Chemical & Metallurgical: Purification of high molecular weight, organic and inorganic elements & compounds; Fractionation of multi-compound solutions, removal of colloidal and macromolecular impurities;
  
  
• Textile & Dye: Textile color removal
  
  
• Waste Treatment & Water Reuse: In packing houses, fish-FPC, chemical, plating, mining, sewage, food, diary, yeast, etc.
  
  
• Oil Spill Cleanup: In a combination sweep/process plant, FTC can collect oil spilled on an ocean, lake or river remove the water and recover the oil.

Our ultrafiltration (UF) can be cast to do total rejection of 5,000 to 20,000 molecular weight (MW) molecules. For example, large molecules (lignin), enzymes, bacteria, lactose, colloidal matter, fine suspended particulate matter, and proteins will not pass through the membrane.

We have designed and engineered a Potable Water unit that will produce between 200 – 500 gallons/day of disease-free potable water. This unit will operate from electrical power generated on-site and requires no electrical power.