Eden Labs has been at the forefront of biofuel research since the mid nineties.  Areas of research are fuel ethanol production, biodiesel, butanol, and gasification.  The research includes optimizing the designs of the production equipment and looking at new sources of feedstock for making biofuels.  While Eden Labs specializes in equipment for research and small scale commercial production, we also have a partnership with River Engineering of Columbus, Ohio.  The Eden-River team has engineered and built cutting edge, large scale equipment that is being used to bring biofuel technology to the mainstream.

If you are looking to purchase biofuel production equipment or looking for someone to build a custom biofuel design of your own, Eden Labs has the knowledge and resources to do it.  Below is a summary of equipment and biofuel feedstock research that Eden Labs has been involved with.

FUEL ETHANOL

Eden Labs specializes in distillation equipment.  The company was founded on our proprietary coldfinger distilling design and has continued to research and improve distillation methods.  We manufacture stills from 4 liters to 500 gallons.  Larger units can be built custom.  Distilling columns can be conventional packed column styles that stack above the distiller or the “Charles Still” design which puts the column at the side of the distiller.

Eden Labs believes that fuel ethanol feedstock needs better alternatives than corn because the numbers just don’t work.  Brazil has proven that the numbers do work for sugar cane.  Research at Iowa State Univ. and in India has  shown that sorghum also works as an ethanol feedstock with numbers rivaling sugar cane.  Our research has shown that sorghum can be grown as far north as the Seattle area.  We have also demonstrated that certain high sugar grasses may be competitive with sugar cane and sorghum as a northern latitude fuel ethanol feedstock.  The emerging algae biofuel industry is another potential source of fuel ethanol. (see below)  Eden Labs has also designed and built equipment for converting cellulosic waste material into ethanol feedstock.

ALGAE BIODIESEL

Eden Labs is part of the algae biodiesel revolution. Our team has been working on methodologies for extracting nutritional algaes since the mid-nineties which gives us an edge on competitors.   We make research equipment for extracting oils from algae including supercritical co2 extractors and conventional hexane extraction equipment.  Hexane extraction is considered the standard amongst serious algae researchers for determining oil yields from algae.  Eden Labs is also part of a research team that will soon be bringing a breakthrough method of algae extraction to the market which will dramaticly lower the cost of producing algae oil.  We welcome serious inquiries from companies and individuals who have high oil strains of algae.

While all the talk has been centered around making biodiesel from the oils that are abundant in algae, we believe that algae offers at least three potential fuel sources: First, extract the oils for biodiesel, then convert the starches to sugars and ferment them for ethanol or butanol.  Take the leftover biomass and run it through a gasifier to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.  With the use of certain catalysts, gasification can also produce other biofuels as well.

GASIFICATION

Gasification is a technology that is used to “sweat” the hydrogen and carbon monoxide out of cellulosic materials or biomass.  This type of extraction is remarkably simple at its core.  Some of the most basic gasifiers appear to be little more than wood stoves.  To efficiently make useable and storeable biofuels without creating a lot of waste and pollution, however, modern engineering must be employed.

Eden Labs can build gasifiers that can be used to convert any biomass to make heat and electricity, or liquid fuels to run internal combustion motors.