Strategic Diagnostics and Broin and Associates have announced the signing of a contract to develop application(s) based on SDI's patent-pending technology utilising bacteriophage as selective agents
The application(s) will directly support Broin and Associates proprietary BPX technologies for ethanol production.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Earlier this year, SDI announced the publication of its patent application, including claims addressing problems in bio-fermentation that pertain to the microbiological contamination of the process.
Rob Broin, chief technology officer at Broin and Associates, commented, "Broin companies have aggressively invested in the development of technologies that are demonstrating industry-leading performance in the production of ethanol.
"The Broin BPX technology consistently delivers industry leading yields and plant efficiencies while producing the highest quality co-products.
"We believe that SDI's technology and expertise can meaningfully contribute to Broin process technologies".
"We are delighted to be working with Broin," commented Matt Knight, president and CEO of SDI.
"In addition to their industry-leading position as a builder and operator of ethanol facilities, they are great innovators with a tremendous track record for developing breakthrough technologies".
Process contamination is a challenge in all industrial fermentation systems that start with a raw or non-sterile feedstock, such as corn, or operate in a non-sterile environment.
In such applications, the fermentation process may be operated in ways that compromise the efficiency and yield of their fermentation processes in order to prevent contamination from overwhelming the production organism.
SDI's technology controls contaminating bacteria in industrial fermentations while optimising the process to produce a preferential environment for the production organism.
It allows the customer to reduce the number of failed batches, increase the yield per batch, eliminate the use of undesirable chemicals in their media and formulations, and better optimise the overall system chemistry for optimum production.
