MOUNT ARLINGTON, N.J., Dec 12, 2005 -- BUSINESS WIRE

 

GreenShift Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board:GSHF) today announced the execution by its wholly owned technology transfer and industrial design company, GreenShift Industrial Design Corporation ("GIDC"), of a license agreement with Ohio University ("Ohio") for its patented bioreactor process for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fueled combustion processes.

Natural Solutions(TM)

GIDC's business model is based on the engineering and marketing of Natural Solutions(TM) - green innovations and processes that enhance manufacturing efficiencies, improve resource utilization and minimize waste.

Ohio's technology was developed to remove carbon dioxide, one of the primary greenhouse gases, from the smokestacks of fossil-fueled power plants in a way that leverages nature's own solution: photosynthesis. Industrial quantities of carbon dioxide, however, require industrial amounts of photosynthetic activity, and power plant emissions, which are called flue gases, average temperatures in excess of a very hot 55 degrees Celsius (131 degrees Fahrenheit).

Dr. David Bayless, director of Ohio's Ohio Coal Research Center, realized that he needed a carbon-hungry photosynthetic organism that could withstand the blistering temperatures of flue gases. To be commercially viable, Bayless also realized that he needed to maximize surface area in order to maximize carbon sequestration on the smallest possible footprint. He again turned to nature for the solution.

Using $1 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding, assistance from Keith Cooksey, a microbiologist at Montana State University who had been researching bacteria found in the mineral hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, and a system of parabolic mirrors, fiber optic cables and slabs of acrylic plastic called "glow plates" developed by scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Bayless designed a bioreactor based on a newly discovered iron-loving cyanobacterium (blue-green algae), tentatively named Chroogloeocystis siderophila, that Cooksey discovered thriving in a hot stream at Yellowstone.

In Bayless's bioreactor, algae grow on membranes of woven fibers resembling window screens interspersed between the Oak Ridge glow plates. Capillary action wicks water to the algae, fiber optic cables channel sunlight into the glow plates, and ducts bring in the hot flue gas. By spreading the cyanobacteria on membranes, "you get a lot of surface area for growth, but you don't need a lot of water and the bacteria use only about 10 percent of full-strength sunlight," Bayless explains. "This enables us to take one square meter of sunlight and spread it out over 10 square meters of growth surface."

The algae use the available carbon dioxide and water to grow new algae, giving off pure oxygen and water vapor in the process. The organisms also absorb nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which contribute to acid rain. Once the algae grow to maturity, they fall to the bottom of the bioreactor and are harvested for other uses. "We're storing carbon dioxide in organisms that exist in your backyard," Bayless says. "Once the algae is grown, if it can't be used as fuel or a hydrogen source, it can be used as a fertilizer or soil stabilizer."

A prototype of the technology was built that is capable of handling 140 cubic meters of flue gas per minute, an amount equal to the exhaust from 50 cars or a 3 megawatt power plant.

GIDC's license with Ohio provides for non-exclusive rights to the technology for the purpose of air pollution control of exhaust gas streams from electrical utility power generation facilities, and exclusive rights to the technology for the air pollution control of exhaust gas streams from all other sources, including mobile applications, and to process carbon-containing compounds from any other source.

"Nature has developed solutions to many of the environmental challenges we face today," said Kevin Kreisler, GreenShift Corporation's chairman and chief executive officer. "Dr. Bayless and his associates have tapped these natural solutions and developed what we feel is a very important and timely technology."

"Its importance arises from its simplicity - Bayless' bioreactor is in our view simple, robust and scalable, and it is capable of stimulating additional revenues for power plant operators through the reduction of their carbon emissions and sale of carbon credits. We accordingly believe that this technology is capable of rapid proliferation with the right support, and we intend to provide this support where we can."

In addition to providing financial and other support for GIDC, GreenShift intends to tap into the existing client base and capabilities of some of its other portfolio companies including Sterling Planet, Inc., the nation's largest retailer of renewable energy certificates, TerraPass, Inc., who buys carbon dioxide credits and renewable energy certificates for resale to consumers to offset their car's carbon dioxide emissions.

INSEQ Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board:INSQ), another GreenShift portfolio company, will manufacture systems based on the bioreactor technology for GIDC.

About GreenShift Corporation

GreenShift Corporation is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) whose mission is to develop and support companies and technologies that facilitate the efficient use of natural resources and catalyze transformational environmental gains.

BDCs are regulated by the Investment Company Act of 1940 and are essentially publicly-traded equity funds where shareholders and financial institutions provide capital in a regulated environment for investment in a pool of long-term, small and middle-market companies through the use of senior debt, mezzanine financing, and equity funding.

GreenShift plans to use equity and debt capital to support and drive the value of its existing portfolio of companies and to make investments in a diversified mix of strategically compatible growth stage public and private businesses and technologies. GreenShift's current portfolio includes investments in the following environmentally proactive companies:

-- Veridium Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board:VRDM);

-- INSEQ Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board:INSQ);

-- GreenWorks Corporation;

-- GreenShift Industrial Design Corporation;

-- Ovation Products Corporation;

-- Tornado Trash Corporation;

-- Mean Green BioFuels Corporation;

-- Ethanol Oil Recovery Systems, LLC;

-- BioEnergy Engineering, LLC;

-- Sterling Planet, Inc.;

-- TerraPass, Inc.;

-- Aerogel Composite, Inc.;

-- Air Cycle Corporation;

-- Electronic Scrap Recycling Corporation;

-- Coriolis Energy Corporation;

-- Hugo International Telecom, Inc.; and,

-- TDS (Telemedicine), Inc.

Additional information regarding GreenShift Corporation is available online at www.greenshift.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains statements, which may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of GreenShift Corporation, and members of their management as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Important factors currently known to management that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-statements include fluctuation of operating results, the ability to compete successfully and the ability to complete before-mentioned transactions. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results.

SOURCE: GreenShift Corporation

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