Comstock Executes Exclusive License and Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Rhea-AI Summary

Comstock Inc. (NYSE: LODE) has announced the execution of an Exclusive License Agreement (ELA) and Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for technologies to convert lignocellulosic biomass into aromatic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The agreements involve a three-year scope of work to develop an integrated process based on Comstock's existing technology and NREL's innovations.

Key points:

• Comstock's current process can produce up to 125 gallons of renewable fuel per dry metric ton of feedstock with low carbon intensity scores.
• The integration of NREL technologies could improve feedstock diversity, conversion yields, and product quality for SAF production.
• The CRADA aims to culminate in a pre-commercial pilot system, potentially leading to a 50,000 metric ton per year commercial demonstration facility.
• The ELA grants Comstock exclusive worldwide rights to use NREL technologies for processing seed plants into renewable fuels, subject to certain restrictions.

Positive

• Exclusive license agreement with NREL for advanced biomass-to-SAF technology
• Potential to increase renewable fuel yield from 125 to over 140 gallons per dry metric ton
• Opportunity to produce 100% renewable SAF at costs approaching fossil fuel parity
• Planned scale-up to 50,000 metric ton per year commercial demonstration facility

Negative

• Technology still at early stages (TRL 4), requiring significant development and validation
• Substantial investment needed for research, development, and commercialization

Insights

Renewable Energy Analyst

This collaboration between Comstock and NREL marks a significant step towards advancing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) technology. The exclusive license and research agreement could potentially lead to groundbreaking developments in renewable fuel production, particularly in creating 100% renewable SAF at costs approaching fossil fuel parity.

Key points to consider:

• Comstock's existing process already achieves impressive yields of up to 125 gallons of renewable fuel per dry metric ton of feedstock, with low carbon intensity scores of 15.
• The integration of NREL technologies could further improve feedstock diversity, conversion yields and product quality while reducing costs.
• The focus on aromatic SAF production aligns with the growing global demand for sustainable aviation fuels, potentially positioning Comstock as a market leader.
• The three-year research collaboration, culminating in a pre-commercial pilot system, could accelerate the path to commercialization and large-scale production.

For investors, this partnership represents a significant opportunity in the rapidly growing renewable fuels market, particularly in the aviation sector. However, it's important to note that the technology is still at a relatively early stage (TRL 4) and successful commercialization will depend on the outcomes of the research and development process.

Biofuels Industry Expert

This agreement between Comstock and NREL is a game-changer for the biofuels industry, particularly in the realm of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The collaboration brings together Comstock's proven commercial process with NREL's cutting-edge technologies, potentially creating a synergy that could revolutionize SAF production.

Critical aspects to consider:

• The integrated process aims to maximize aromatic content, which is important for high-quality SAF.
• The involvement of world-class researchers from NREL, MIT and Washington State University adds significant credibility and expertise to the project.
• The planned scale-up from TRL 4 to TRL 8 demonstrates a clear pathway to commercialization, with the 50,000 metric ton per year demonstration facility serving as a important stepping stone.
• If successful, this technology could address the "endless oilwell" of woody biomass, providing a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels in aviation.

For the biofuels market, this development could accelerate the transition to sustainable aviation fuels, potentially disrupting traditional fuel supply chains. Investors should monitor the progress of the CRADA and subsequent pilot projects, as successful outcomes could position Comstock as a leader in the SAF market.

World Class Innovation Team Set Sights on 100% Renewable Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Fossil Parity

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev., Oct. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Comstock Inc. (NYSE: LODE) (“Comstock” and the “Company”) today announced the execution by Comstock’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Comstock IP Holdings LLC, of an Exclusive License Agreement (“ELA”) and Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (“CRADA”) with Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC (“Alliance”), the managing and operating contractor of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (“NREL”), involving technologies developed by NREL and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MIT”) for conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into aromatic sustainable aviation fuel (“SAF”). NREL and MIT are separately party to an Inter-Institutional Agreement that appointed NREL the exclusive right to license NREL’s and MIT’s joint intellectual properties, and Comstock IP Holdings previously granted Comstock Fuels Corporation the master exclusive rights for commercialization of its existing and new renewable fuels technologies.

Comstock’s Existing Process

Comstock Fuels offers advanced lignocellulosic biomass refining solutions that produce market-leading yields of cellulosic ethanol, gasoline, renewable diesel, SAF, and other renewable fuels at extremely low carbon intensities. The Comstock Fuels process generally involves: (1) solvolytic digestion and fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass, (2) bioconversion of cellulose into Cellulosic Ethanol, (3) esterification of lignin and other derivatives into Bioleum Oil, (4) hydrodeoxygenation of Bioleum Oil into Hydrodeoxygenated Bioleum Oil (“HBO”), (5) refining of the resulting intermediates into ASTM compliant renewable fuels, and (6) gas-to-liquids emissions capture and fuel conversion. The first five of these processes are proven to produce up to 125 gallons of renewable fuel per dry metric ton of feedstock (on a gasoline gallon equivalent basis, or GGE), depending on feedstock, lignin content, site conditions, and other process parameters, with extremely low carbon intensity scores of 15. The sixth step has the potential to increase bulk biomass conversion yields even further, to more than 140 GGE and more than 70% of the theoretical maximum yield from most forms of woody biomass.

Integrated Process

Comstock IP Holdings is focused on continuously improving the proven performance and operations of Comstock Fuel’s commercial refining solutions, including by increasing feedstock diversity, bulk conversion yields, and product quality for use in SAF while decreasing total variable costs.

The technologies covered by the NREL license have the proven potential to contribute to each of those objectives, including by depolymerizing and stabilizing intermediates, by reforming feedstock derived water to decrease reliance on fossil hydrogen, and by removing oxygen in a way that favors high concentrations of aromatic hydrocarbons for use in SAF.

David Winsness, President of Comstock Fuels, said, “Our existing commercial process unlocks and converts wasted, unused, and purpose grown woody biomass into renewable fuels at extraordinary yields and carbon intensities, essentially creating an endless oilwell hidden in plain sight. Our planned commercial facilities have been designed to tap into that oilwell to produce an array of intermediates and fuels. However, further developing and integrating the NREL technologies into our process could give us the remarkable additional ability to maximize aromatic content and quality specifically for high value use in addressing the recent global surge in demand for SAF.”

World Class Team

The terms of the CRADA involve a three-year scope of work to jointly develop an integrated process based on Comstock’s existing process and the NREL technologies for the solvocatalytic refining of woody biomass into aromatic SAF and other renewable fuels. Comstock will fund the research and contribute staff, equipment, and use of its pilot facility in Wisconsin. The joint work will be supported by a world class team, including Gregg Beckham, David Brandner, Mickey Stone, and Michelle Reed of NREL, Yuriy Román-Leshkov, MIT’s Robert T. Haslam Professor in Chemical Engineering, and Joshua Heyne, Director of the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Lab at Washington State University. The CRADA is anticipated to culminate in construction of a pre-commercial pilot system to validate the requirements needed to rapidly scale-up the resulting process into Comstock’s already planned 50,000 metric ton per year commercial demonstration facility.

Gregg Beckham, Senior Research Fellow for NREL, said, “An integrated process based on Comstock’s and NREL’s technologies would have remarkable potential in decarbonizing liquid fuels. Comstock’s established market leadership and commercial scale-up plans for its existing process provide an exciting opportunity to accelerate commercialization of NREL’s technology. Our respective teams from NREL and MIT are delighted to work with Comstock to scale-up this technology for low-carbon fuels and products.”

“Comstock’s mission is to enable systemic decarbonization, starting with transportation,” said Kevin Kreisler, Comstock’s chief technology officer. “Our plan to do so involves developing and commercializing highly profitable new processes that bootstrap the Earth’s natural carbon cycle while enabling stakeholders at all levels of the mobility supply chain to produce and use enough renewable fuels to decarbonize at globally meaningful scales. Our existing commercial process launches that effort, but we believe that we can maximize the breadth and rate of global market adoption with continued innovation to produce the world’s first 100% renewable SAF at costs that approach parity with fossil fuels. We believe that feat to be achievable by integrating Comstock’s and NREL’s technologies, and we’re excited to get to work.”

The ELA provides Comstock IP Holdings with the exclusive worldwide right to use the NREL technologies in the processing and conversion of seed plants to renewable fuels and renewable fuel feedstocks, including native, hybrid, and transgenic phenotypes, and derivatives thereof, excluding switchgrass, big bluestem, miscanthus, and the leaves, stalks, and husks produced during the harvesting of corn, subject to limited geographic restrictions, in exchange for royalty and other fees linked to sales of licensed products and sublicensing.

NREL’s and MIT’s prior work on the NREL technologies was initially funded by the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, a DOE Research Center supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science, and the DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office on the Lignin Conversion to Sustainable Aviation Fuel Blendstocks project. More information on the technologies is available online in the articles titled Catalytic Process With Lignin Could Enable 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Making Aviation Fuel from Biomass, and Continuous Hydrodeoxygenation of Lignin to Jet-Range Aromatic Hydrocarbons.

Technology Readiness Level

Comstock uses the technology readiness scale to estimate the readiness of technology from conception to commercialization, iterating sequentially as follows: (i) TRL 1 (basic principles observed and reported); (ii) TRL 2 (technology concept and application formulated); (iii) TRL 3 (analytical and experimental proof of concept); (iv) TRL 4 (validation in laboratory environment); (v) TRL 5 (pre-pilot scale validation in relevant environment); (vi) TRL 6 (pilot prototype demonstration in relevant environment); (vii) TRL 7 (scaled-up commercial prototype in operational environment); (viii) TRL 8 (commercial system demonstration); (ix) TRL 9 (commercial maturity).

The NREL technologies covered by the Comstock license have been validated at TRL 4. The scope of work under the CRADA involves rapid validation of an integrated TRL 3 process based on Comstock’s and NREL’s technologies, followed by construction of a TRL 6 pre-commercial pilot system. Once complete, a modular TRL 7 scale-up of the integrated process would be added to Comstock’s recently announced 50,000 metric ton per year demonstration facility to provide the data required for scale-up in Comstock’s planned 1,000,000 metric ton per year commercial facilities at TRL 8.

About Comstock Inc.

Comstock Inc. (NYSE: LODE) commercializes innovative technologies that contribute to global decarbonization and the clean energy transition by efficiently converting under-utilized natural resources, primarily, woody biomass into low-carbon renewable fuels, end-of-life metal extraction and renewal, and generative AI-enabled advanced materials synthesis and mineral discovery for sustainable mining. To learn more, please visit www.comstock.inc.

Comstock Social Media Policy

Comstock Inc. has used, and intends to continue using, its investor relations link and main website at www.comstock.inc in addition to its Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts, as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

CONTACTS:

For investor inquiries:

RB Milestone Group LLC

Tel (203) 487-2759

ir@comstockinc.com

For media inquiries or questions:

Comstock Inc., Zach Spencer

Tel (775) 847-7532

questions@comstockinc.com

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FAQ

What is the potential yield increase for Comstock's renewable fuel production using the new NREL technology?

The integration of NREL technologies with Comstock's existing process could potentially increase the renewable fuel yield from 125 gallons to over 140 gallons per dry metric ton of feedstock.

What is the current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the NREL technologies licensed by Comstock?

The NREL technologies covered by the Comstock license have been validated at TRL 4, which represents validation in a laboratory environment.

What is the planned capacity of Comstock's commercial demonstration facility for the new integrated process?

Comstock plans to develop a 50,000 metric ton per year commercial demonstration facility to validate the integrated process at scale.

How long is the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Comstock and NREL?

The CRADA involves a three-year scope of work to jointly develop an integrated process based on Comstock's existing process and the NREL technologies.