Stripping starch from straw

The HST system is a mechanical dry separation system, which has the ability
to separate organic biomass on a molecular level while utilizing very little
energy and emitting no waste product.

BTX Holdings is a development stage company that
specializes in the development and acquisition of technologies to extract
useable products from biomass. It is currently under agreement to acquire the
HST system, pending successful due diligence.

BTX
recently began testing the HST system, which was specially calibrated to
concentrate the starch and sugar fractions contained in wheat straw, to produce
feedstock for ethanol production.

“According to the laboratory, the HST
system has drastically modified and concentrated the starch/sugar contained in
the wheat straw and it appears to have broken down a portion of the fibre into
complex sugar chains or starch,” said Scott Silverman, president and CEO of BTX
Holdings.

The HST system breaks the original biomass feedstuff into three
separate streams. The analysis that was conducted by an independent national
laboratory showed a total starch content of 2.82% in the original wheat straw
base. In total the three streams after processing in the HST system turned out a
total starch content of more than 45%.

“We are anxious to further analyze
the C fraction for the simple sugar content and to conduct large scale
fermentation testing. Our company is encouraged every time we receive results
like this as we are confident that the various environmentally friendly
technologies we are working with will assist in reducing the dependence on
fossils fuels, and upon commercialization, bring great value to our
shareholders,” Silverman said.

Additional info: BioTex Corporation