To: C E D who wrote (258 ) 1/4/2000 9:33:00 PM From: Sector Investor Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Now lets link a few pieces together:Studies over the last several months indicate that HPBS will be a lower-cost and potentially biodegradable building-block in the manufacture of detergents. " heretofore unknown properties ." EBC believes that surfactant manufacturers will be enticed by the low-cost feedstock and the possible intrinsic environmental friendliness of chemicals produced via a biological pathway. One of the markets EBC has been targeting, the linear alkyl benzene sulfonate ("LAS") market, is currently a four billion pound per year market with a 4% average annual growth rate. EBC's new product could displace or alternatively, reduce the use of benzene and possibly eliminate the need for a costly sulfonation step in the manufacture of a LAS substitute. The substitute product has physical and chemical properties similar to LAS. EBC plans to partner with an existing surfactant manufacturer to evaluate and develop this new commercial application of its technology."If a chemical deal can be consummated, it may well mean that the chemical/refining company simply wants access to the BDS process to generate the HPBS co-product for commercial use, irrespective of whether or not the 50 PPM level can be attained through BDS! To put it another way, this chemical company/refiner might potentially use BDS in the first desulfurization pass to get as much of the sulfur out of diesel fuel as possible using BDS and then use their existing HDS facilities to get down to 50 PPM."
