ICM, Inc. announced today that it has filed a non-provisional patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and an international patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with the U.S. as receiving office, for ICM's newest development in the field of corn oil separation, its Advanced Oil System. A petition to request participation in the USPTO's "Green Technology Pilot Program" was also filed, which allows for accelerated examination and issuance for "green" technologies.
The Advanced Oil System is ICM’s answer to today’s oil extraction challenges. The next-generation technology solves the issue of reduced corn oil yield due to emulsification -- the biggest barrier ICM and other technology providers have encountered in delivering consistently high oil recovery rates. ICM’s proprietary Advanced Oil System design uses a novel approach to deliver a much higher conversion rate than is currently possible with first-generation oil recovery technology.
The Advanced Oil System consists of separate skid mounted units that can be installed at plants without oil extraction technology, or as an add-on to plants that already have invested in ICM's first generation corn oil extraction equipment. ICM is deploying its first commercial Advanced Oil System at an ICM-designed 110 MGY ethanol plant; the system was commissioned last week and is currently operating.
Chris Mitchell, Executive Vice-President of ICM stated, “We have focused our efforts on developing solutions that deliver quick payback and ongoing value-added co-product streams to the renewable energy industry. We believe our competitive advantage comes from providing our customers with a competitive advantage of their own—the highest-yielding and most reliable oil separation technology available.”
ICM's General Counsel, Brian Burris, confirmed that the Advanced Oil System™ design and method clearly fall outside all patent claims of GreenShift Corporation's patents. "Our patent pending system does not separate oil directly from the concentrated thin stillage. ICM's system implements special processing to release oil from an emulsion concentrate, which results in a higher recovery of corn oil from the ethanol process." ICM now has two differentiated solutions that allow the operator to control the quantity of oil removed from the process: the Tricanter Oil Separation System and the Advanced Oil System.
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