Meanwhile, HCL has appointed an American manager in the stead of its founder, Eran Baniel, and has set out to raise more than $20 million.

The investment by the Energy Department is part of the Obama administration’s plan to reduce America’s dependence on oil. The department says on its website that it is investing $36 million in six small-scale projects in the United States, each developing processes to produce energy either from biofuel—originating from organic sources—or forms of renewable energy.

HCL’s solution makes use of technology used in Germany decades ago, under the Nazis, to produce sugars from nonfood organic sources, mainly acidic cellulosic sources. The U.S. government grant will be used to improve the production technique, said Baniel. LS9’s role in the joint venture will be to process the sugars produced by HCL into fuel. The two startups will be building a joint plant, either in Virginia or North Carolina, Baniel said.

HCL was founded in 2007 based on research and development by Dr. Avraham Baniel, Eran’s father, and Prof. Aharon Eyal. Baniel the elder is now 93, probably making him Israel’s oldest high-tech entrepreneur. Avraham Baniel has spent 69 years doing industrial chemical research and developing its application. Eyal is a professor of applied chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Their company conducted feasibility tests of the technology in 2008 and proved that it works.

“We are currently conducting an internal financing round, to raise something over $20 million,” Baniel said. “We will be making the formal announcement soon.”

HCL aims to produce fuel from the detritus of agriculture and the woodworking industry. Some 27% of the solid mass weight of plant material is lignin, a chemical compound found in the interior cell walls of trees, plants and some algae. Another 68% is sugars, and the rest is oils.

The startup HCL derived its name by using hydrochloric acid (HCl) to extract the sugars from the cellulosic biomass. The main technical problem, from an economic perspective, was to regain for reuse critical mass of concentrated acid extracted from the production process.

“We take agricultural waste and turn it into food for man and beast,” said Baniel. “It can also serve as a fuel alternative.” The agricultural waste can come from industrial processing of corn, sugar cane, grain and much more, he added.

The company’s basic process was invented by a German scientist, Friedrich Bergius, in 1913. Nearly two decades later, in 1931, Bergius was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his developments in high-pressure chemistry. His invention was a way to produce synthetic fuel from the hydrogenation of lignite, known as brown coal. The German government abandoned its use during World War II because of its costliness.

-haaretz.com, 12 June 2011

Fuel is the key to the future. Energy requirements for the industrial world continue to rise, and also in the developing world. The continuous need for more oil is reinforced by the more than 60 million cars annually added to the roads of the world. Regardless of the various forms of newly “engineered” energy sources, many experts see the handwriting on the wall.

            This development reveals a shadow of prophecy applicable to the Church. Our power supply is inexhaustible, guaranteed in Scripture. It has endured for almost 2,000 years around the world. But this inexhaustible power supply is not to be used for individual advantage or self-elevating aim, but strictly for the building of His Church on earth. Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). This is designated for a very specific purpose, as the following verses clearly show: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (verses 19-20).

(For more on the Spirit’s work, read Prayer and Revival, Item 1002.)

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