Advanced BioFuels USA

(ClearFlame Engine Technologies)  ClearFlame Engine Technologies, a growing startup dedicated to the development of clean engine technology today announced a partnership with Alto Ingredients, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTO), a leading producer of specialty alcohols and essential ingredients, to conduct pilot demonstrations of its proven solution for diesel engines using low-cost ethanol in Class VIII trucks.

ClearFlame will provide Alto with a Class VIII truck retrofitted with a 500hp heavy-duty demonstration engine, which can match diesel torque and efficiency by achieving true diesel-style combustion of any decarbonized fuel. In turn, Alto will provide fuel and fleet support, which will enable real-world testing on the road. ClearFlame anticipates its engine running on ethanol can reduce GHG vehicle emissions by more than 45 percent and offer an estimated 15-30 percent TCO savings when compared with a diesel-fueled solution.

“This is an important milestone for us as we can now offer fleets a widely available fuel solution so they can begin to test our technology easily in real-world environments,” said Dr. BJ Johnson, ClearFlame CEO and co-founder. “Alto provides the important logistical infrastructure critical to ensuring successful demonstration – everything from tank installation to dispensing of the fuel, with a well-established existing liquid fueling infrastructure already in place. We look forward to working with them to drive forward our mission of quickly decarbonizing heavy-duty industry with a practical, cost-effective solution that is available today.”

“Alto Ingredients is partnering with ClearFlame on its engine project to support our customers’ CO2 reduction efforts by displacing 100 percent of the diesel in the tank,” said Mike Kandris, CEO, Alto Ingredients. “We are proud to partner with ClearFlame in such a transformative project within the fuel industry, promoting the increased use of ethanol and contributing to material improvements in the decarbonization of our environment.”

ClearFlame’s unique engine technology enables low-carbon and carbon-negative fuels to be easily integrated into existing diesel engine platforms, offering a more sustainable and cost-effective solution than diesel fuel while utilizing existing liquid fuel infrastructure. It provides the same performance, efficiency, and rugged practicality associated with diesel engines, while eliminating the need for complex aftertreatment solutions. By replacing 100 percent of the petroleum fuel used with decarbonized fuels such as ethanol, ClearFlame’s engine technology significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter and smog, helping to meet stringent emissions regulations while reducing overall engine cost. ClearFlame-enabled trucks will begin driving in late 2021, for fleet testing to begin in the first quarter of 2022.

About Alto Ingredients, Inc.
Alto Ingredients, Inc. (ALTO) is a leading producer of specialty alcohols and essential ingredients. The company is focused on products for four key markets: Health, Home & Beauty; Food & Beverage; Essential Ingredients; and Renewable Fuels. The company’s customers include major food and beverage companies and consumer products companies. For more information please visit www.altoingredients.com.

About ClearFlame Engine Technologies
At ClearFlame Engine Technologies, we’re breaking the bond between the diesel engine and diesel fuel, accelerating the path to true emissions reduction for the heavy-duty and off-highway markets. Our technology meets global emissions regulations using climate-friendly fuels available throughout the world. Our technology lowers costs by negating the need for complex aftertreatment technologies without compromising the practicality or performance of traditional diesel engines. For more information, visit www.clearflameengines.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter (@ClearFlameEng).  READ MORE

ClearFlame Engine Technologies partners with Alto Ingredients to demo ethanol-fueled MCCI in heavy-duty diesels; high efficiency, low emissions (Green Car Congress)

ClearFlame, Alto in ethanol demo project (Diesel Progress)

NEW ETHANOL POWERED DIESEL ENGINE EXPECTED TO BOOST CORN DEMAND (Brownfield Ag News)

DEVELOPING NEW USES FOR CORN (Brownfield Ag News; includes AUDIO)

The Digest’s 2022 Multi-Slide Guide to Alto Ingredients (Biofuels Digest)

Excerpt from Green Car Congress: The ClearFlame solution leverages diesel-style mixing-controlled compression ignition (MCCI). Historically, clean-burning fuels, and those that are easy to make from waste CO₂ streams or syngas, have failed to ignite using MCCI.

ClearFlame’s solution, grounded in technology developed during doctoral studies at Stanford University and validated using more than $3 million in grant funding, addresses this problem by elevating combustion temperatures in order to enable use of non-traditional fuels without sacrificing performance. In fact, it increases power by 25%.

In a high-temperature environment, any fuel will behave like diesel fuel, having short ignition delay and burning as it is injected in a mixing fuel plume. Low-sooting fuels allow for the elimination of diesel particulate filtration (DPF). Use of soot-free “Clear” Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) can allow for lower NO_x emissions without the competing soot constraint, meeting next-generation emissions standards without added aftertreatment complexity.

Without soot from diesel fuels, compression ignition engines are not limited to lean operation and can instead use the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio. ClearFlame uses soot-free “Clear” Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) to maintain this ratio under varying load conditions.

Stoichiometric operation substantially increases power density and leaves an exhaust composition suitable for three-way catalysis (TWC) instead of Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) using urea/ammonia (DEF). Simplifying the engine’s aftertreatment system improves its reliability and reduces its cost by about 75%. It also improves its NO_x reduction capability to near-zero levels. Using soot-free fuels eliminates the need for a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF).

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Resources

• Blumreiter, J., Johnson, B., Zhou, A., Magnotti, G. et al. (2019) “Mixing-Limited Combustion of Alcohol Fuels in a Diesel Engine,” SAE Technical Paper 2019-01-0552, doi: 10.4271/2019-01-0552.

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