As a summary introductory document, we invite you to click on the following link to review the "CBR-HBR Intro Document".
Overview
CBR has broad and unique capabilities as they pertain to processing plant materials – both feedstocks and biomass. This process enables the breakdown of plant materials, in a matter of minutes, to micron-sized particles – all the while using no heat or chemicals.
Circular economy
The world’s economy is currently linear
Crops are grown, farmed, processed, manufactured, sold, and then when we’re done, it is dumped into landfills. The idea of a sustainable ‘circular economy’ —one in which materials are used in a closed-loop, running on renewable energy—is gaining traction. Community BioRefineries’ vertically integrated production model is perfectly suited to support the circular economy of tomorrow.
What is a “Circular economy”?
A circular economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources. Circular systems employ reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling to create a closed-loop system, minimizing the use of resources and creation of waste, pollution and carbon emissions.
The circular economy aims to keep products, equipment and infrastructure in use for longer periods, thus improving the productivity of these resources. Waste materials and energy become input for other processes: either a component or recovered resource for another industrial process or as regenerative resources for nature (e.g., compost) – or yet more value-added products. (Sound familiar?) This regenerative approach is in contrast to the traditional linear economy, which has a "take, make, dispose" model of production.
The Community BioRefineries model was designed long before the idea of a “circular economy” became popular. CBR uses everything, wastes nothing, recycles its final “waste water”, and creates its own green electrical power to run its facilities.
Mission Statement
Our Mission is for the Community Bio-Refineries to apply the research and development efforts commercialization to construct and operate sustainable Community Bio-Refineries (CBRs) in local communities throughout the U.S. and internationally (where legally accepted). In using the technologies, CBRs will process the entire feedstocks utilizing a vertically integrated process to extract all the components of the plant from the root to the bud. The CBRs will produce much higher value-added foods, nutraceuticals, and other products with the creation of advanced (third-generation) biofuels in the same biorefinery.
CBRs will decentralize the biorefinery, allowing each facility the ability to make quick decisions based on industry trends that can save the overall CBR’s money. This decentralized business model was the same guide the Micro-Brewery Industry utilized in the late 1980s until today when competing with the big monolith breweries. In the United States, the overall beer volume sales were down 1% in 2018, whereas craft brewer sales continued to grow at a rate of 4% by volume, reaching 13.2% of the U.S. beer market by volume. Craft production grew the most for microbreweries.
The CBRs will produce foods, biofuels, bioplastics, aquaculture, and energy, generating economic development in the agriculture sector, as well as in local communities. CBRs will also eliminate the use of petroleum in our local communities where CBRs are located, and reduce the cost of producing foods and the transportation of foods to the local supper table. CBRs will offer energy independence to our local communities because CBRs will serve to replace all petroleum-based products, including fuels, from diesel fuel, to gasoline, to biojet and aviation fuels.
Our Vision
Our Vision is to create networks of totally green, economically sustainable Community Bio-Refineries (CBRs) in local communities throughout the U.S. and internationally; to help establish sustainable green communities by providing food and energy, in the form of biofuels and green electric power, and bio-products to help meet the goal of energy independence for local communities, and our nation, from foreign oil.
Crib Sheet ("Cheat Sheet") for the CBR
Most of us are familiar with the use of a crib sheet while preparing and organizing notes for an exam. We would like to offer our readers something similar:
Community Bio-Refinery Facility Highlights
- Modular Design
- Circular Economy
- Smaller Scale to locate near source materials
- Most equipment is “off the shelf”
- Many well-paying jobs
- Community Focused
- No Waste
- No Pollution
- 100% Utilization of source materials
- Process water recycled
- Many quality products from plant sources
- Corn - Soy - Heart Healthy Corn – Sweet Cane Sorghum – Industrial Hemp/Cannabis
- Numerous other
What Do We Get from a CBR Facility?
What else can I expect from my CBR facility? A logical question to be sure. Simply put – a lot!
For example, let’s talk about protein isolate. A plant that is processing both traditional corn and soy is able to blend the respective isolates to create a Pure Plant Protein isolate that is suitable in products meant for all age ranges – from infant to geriatric. How many food companies would want to have access to a Pure Plant Protein that could be added to any of their products?
Already we are reading about meat and other food products emphasizing the fact that they contain plant protein. OK, but…they don’t mention that it is only of moderate purity, and we have no idea if it was damaged by whomever was extracting it to begin with because of poor extraction and/or recovery methods.
We anticipate food companies and food formulators will be standing in line for our Pure Plant Proteins. Many of our plant proteins fall into the nutraceutical category.
We can offer examples like this for all of our products, be they other food components, bio-butanol or bio-plastics.
There are other companies that say they can make bio-butanol; however, they cannot make enough of it to be of any use as a biofuel, so they sell it as a chemical.
We are frequently referred to other companies that make plant protein, or bio-butanol, or even various other products from hemp. While these companies get (or create) a lot of press and internet space, what always seems to be left out is their quality, purity, how damaged their products may be, so the consumers are not getting what they think they are.
An investment partner with us will get a whole lot more than some equity and their money back (Phases I & II). We invite all qualified investors to partner with us and be part of a company like no one has ever seen before!
Our Story Community Bio-Refineries (CBRs)
Community Bio-Refineries will apply the research and development of our technology partners to the development and commercialization of advanced drop-in-place biofuels. The CBR, which is one of the oldest, privately held biofuels R&D groups in the U.S., was established following the oil embargo of the late 1970s. After studying `gasohol´ (ethanol), the CBR realized there were many problems associated with ethanol as a biofuel and that butanol held far greater potential as a biofuel. The CBR was one of the earliest pioneers in biofuel research and development to further the development of butanol by fermentation. This work subsequently led to butanol research at five major universities, and at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories, where in 1983, these Collaborators sponsored the first pilot plant to produce butanol as a biofuel since World War II.
The use of bio-butanol as a fuel was first applied by the British RAF during WWII. The German oil embargo forced the British to try alternate fuels. Fortunately, a British scientist succeeded in fermenting bio-butanol, which was then used by British fighter planes during the Battle of Britain. Following the war, oil again became plentiful and cheap, so all the research, development, and production information was put away and forgotten… until CBR’s founder re-discovered and expanded upon it.
Scientists at Oak Ridge became interested in the potential use of butanol as a biofuel and invited one of CBR's prior research entities to sponsor this project. This was the first time a private group of researchers was ever invited into these government labs to conduct research since the development of the atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project. This work was conducted by Dr. Ed Phares, one of the original scientists of the Manhattan Project. Mr. Phares came out of retirement to work with the CBR, as well as Mr. Samuel Watson, a scientist who coordinated the butanol research project.
Since that time, the CBR's prior research entities traveled worldwide to develop complementary technologies that can be used to make the fermentation and use of butanol economically viable. Their work in biofuels has been featured in international magazines, journals, and on radio and television coast to coast. In 1980, a USDA sponsored publication featured one of these collaborators as “one of the original pioneers of alcohol fuels in the U.S.” These collaborators were featured in numerous national news outlets, to include High Technology Magazine, Mother Earth News, Mayors Weekly, Industrial Technology, Chemical News, The Chicago Tribune, The Des Moines Register, Money Hunt for PBS, Food Engineering Magazine, Beverage World, Food Product Design, Forbes, Dow Jones, and United Press International articles.
Please Note: Community Bio-Refineries, LLC (the parent company) was created from the reorganization of the former EnerGenetics companies. One of the EnerGenetics investors decided to take over the company just as it was preparing to commercialize. While the charges and allegations levied by this person were shown to be bogus, the drawn-out legal process managed to deplete the funds of the companies and the individuals the lawsuits accused. Eventually, bankruptcy became necessary (which was our nemesis's plan all along). Fortunately, a conversion to Chapter 11 (Reorganization) was approved by the court, which gave rise to Community Bio-Refineries, LLC. A portion of the funds raised in Phase I of the Offering are designated to protect the new company (CBR) – and its investors - going forward; this is described in more detail within the Sources and Uses section of the Private Placement Confidential Memorandum (PPM).
The Discovery of Revolutionary, New, and Advanced Biofuels
A New Biofuel — 30 Years in Development
This revolution in Biofuels didn't begin by two scientists at the University of Toronto. The History of Biofuel dates back to the time humankind discovered fire. Wood was the original biological source of the fire, the first form of Biofuel, enabling the ancient people to use wood for cooking and heating. It was a German inventors, Nikolaus August Otto and Rudolf Diesel (inventor of the diesel engine), which took it a step further. Rudolf Diesel designed his diesel engine to run on peanut oil. Later, Henry Ford invented the Model T car manufactured from 1903 to 1926. This car's body structure and the frame was originally designed and built using Hemp fiber; as a fuel source, it used Hemp oil as the Biofuel to run the engine.
The New and Advanced Biofuels revolution began over thirty years ago when two scientists met at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada. Working together, they discovered a revolutionary new biofuel process. This process of fermenting carbohydrates yielded two separate products, n-butanol, and triglyceride oils, which, when combined, formed a type of Biofuel never seen before. This discovery was a "eureka moment" for them because the scientists realized they had produced the world's first natural diesel fuel entirely by the fermentation of carbohydrates. They understood the potential of their discovery: it could lead to the replacement of all petroleum-based fuels.
Why Bio-Butanol?
Traditional butanol (also known as n-butanol or normal butanol) is a higher form of industrial alcohol that is produced as a chemical derivative of the petrochemical cracking process. The U.S. demand currently exceeds 400 million gallons annually for use in creating plastics, neoprene, rubber, paint, Styrofoam, etc. World demand is usually ten times that of U.S. demand. Petroleum-derived n-butanol usually contains left-over petroleum contaminants, which makes it an environmental pollutant.
Commercialization of Bio-Diesel Fuels
Shortly after the discovery of this revolutionary new biofuel, the founder of the CBR realized that in order for biofuels to become competitive with petroleum-based fuels and to become a sustainable industry, the volatility of the costs of the source feedstocks had to be addressed. In the CBR production of biomass products, the focus is on the whole plant - from root to bud. The cost of the feedstock and its preparation are usually the highest costs of producing biofuels and typically accounts for over 50% of the cost to produce biofuels.
The successful research, development, and technology application work of Community Bio-Refineries has resolved that issue through its utilization of every part of the plant.
Algae and Biofuels
Our late Founder, the first patent holder on biodiesel from organics, possessed significant perspectives in the cultivation and application of simple algae as a meaningful feedstock for food AND biofuel production. While CBR fully intends to continue to pursue his vision, our initial focus will be on more traditional feed stocks and biomass.
Having said that, our quest for suitable biomass for biofuel, even the concept of algae cultivation, appears in the spotlight for biofuel manufacturing due to several positive perspectives such as:
- they do not clash with human or animal food chains;
- very rich with carbohydrate, protein, and oil content;
- can grow in aqueous media such as wastewater, freshwater, saline water, and assimilate nutrients from brackish water, salt water, or highly polluted water,
- demand low water;
- sustain capability to grow whole year naturally with sunlight presence;
- can be cultivated in the waste dump area, sea, ponds, rivers, industrial, and municipal waste drainage, wet bare lands especially in cold regions;
- develop sustainable O2 generation system; and,
- diminish CO2 by up taking it for photosynthesis respiration.
In addition, microalgae contain very short harvesting life cycle and yield nascent biomass that drives higher productivity of the desired biofuel.
More CBR Technological Developments
In the past thirty years, the CBR's Research Collaborators raised over $20 million (plus many millions more in in-kind services) to fund sixteen different pilot plant operations at a dozen major universities, and the USDA, to perfect biofuel technologies and establish methods to produce their valuable co-products. These three decades of research have created the world’s first sustainable biofuel business model, which does not require government subsidies for operational profitability.