Locked behind a set of double doors in a sparkling clean warehouse on the city?s far east side is a miniature refinery. The tangle of silver metal tubes and columns resembles the huge oil refineries along the Gulf Coast ? although at 20 feet tall and 40 feet long, it?s just a fraction of the size. But instead of using crude oil as the main ingredient, the refinery at Virent Inc. uses sugar water. Through a patented catalytic process called aqueous phase reforming, the sugar molecules are converted into a product with the same chemical makeup as gasoline. Science fiction? Not at all.
….”I think we’re at a point where these advanced biofuels are nearing commercialization and Virent is right in the front row,” says Gary Radloff, director of Midwest energy policy analysis for the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative at the UW-Madison. Virent officials remain cautious, however, about tooting their own horn.