Leaf Energy Ltd is pleased to announce it has received the Judges’ Award for its Glycerol pretreatment process – the GlycellTM process, at the prestigious 2014 Consensus Greentech Awards held in Sydney last week.

The awards were presented by Senator Simon Birmingham, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment, and recognised Leaf Energy for its innovation in the use of waste glycerol together with waste agricultural biomass to create sustainable biobased products that can replace similar products derived from oil. Commenting on the award win, managing director Ken Richards said, “We are honoured to be recognised by such prominent industry figures and receive the 2014 Consensus Greentech Award.

“Leaf Energy’s GlycellTM process is a simple, innovative and cost effective process that operates at low temperature and pressure using a waste biodegradable reagent, glycerol, to break down plant biomass into its constituent parts; cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Cellulose is a critical building block for many bio-based products,” Mr Richards said. The operating conditions of Leaf Energy’s unique GlycellTM process has many benefits including significantly lower capital and operating costs by comparison to processes such as steam explosion, resulting in the production of low cost cellulose at virtually any scale.

The citation that accompanied the award stated Leaf Energy has demonstrated innovation and entrepreneurship through the use of industrial ecology principles. The process involves the reuse of waste agricultural products to create feed stock for other industries. The patented innovation includes lower energy usage and lower operating and capital costs. The Panel was particularly impressed by the vision and potential, especially for a small organisation. We congratulate Ken and his team on their award. The 2013/14 judging panel comprised of Ray David (Chair), Richard Hayes, Terry Daley, Richard Hale, Robert Nicholson and Joseph Najem.