It began with a Vision

Developing Renewable Energy by Following Nature’s Example

"Fossil fuels are not only finite, their use is detrimental to the climate – what to do? The fact that our oil reserves will be fully depleted in the not too distant future coupled with our environmental obligation to act now before it is too late demands a fundamentally new approach to satisfying our energy and petrochemical needs. The crucial issue in this new approach is to find a substitute for crude oil.

Incident energy from the sun heats our planet but may also be bound in the form of photosynthesis derived chemical energy. The simultaneous day time warming and night time cooling of the earth yields the status quo to maintain the crucial ambient temperature to support life as we know it."

This is an extract from an essay written by the company founder, Dr. Bodo Wolf. It forms the basis for an equally complex yet simple idea and vision: to develop renewable energy by following nature’s example. We employ the same principles that convert solar energy into fossil fuel sources such as coal and oil – but in a significantly accelerated process! How?

Biomass to energy!

The natural building blocks of fuels are carbon dioxide and water together with the elements:

• C (carbon),
• H (hydrogen) and
• O (oxygen), that in turn we convert into
• RENewable energy,

which may then be chemically processed into renewable, synthetic automotive fuels.

CHOREN recognizes, develops and commercializes these principals through the potentially infinite production of renewable energy – by following nature’s example.

It began with a Vision

Modern life styles and businesses are interwoven and can only function if there is a continuous supply of energy.

Perhaps our greatest challenge today is in making this cycle sustainable, not only to maintain some kind of ecological balance, but also to counteract the rapidly dwindling fossil fuel reserves.
Our cumulative crude oil discoveries will have been used up within the next 40 years.

CHOREN Industries is bridging the gap between the needs of the environment and the needs of our industrialized civilization.
Photosynthesis harnessed energy in plants, (carbohydrates) can be converted into highly purified hydro-carbons, that in turn can be used to fuel the very latest automotive technologies. By following nature’s example, the company is mimicking the principles that have been in force since the beginning of life on earth: renewable carbon sources will, in our opinion, be the energy carrier of choice – not only today but also in future and even hydrogen based economies.

Our largest power station is situated 150 million kilometers away. It has been operating continuously since the beginning of time and we can use its energy for an indefinite period – completely free of charge. The sun produces so much energy that the earth receives enough radiation to satisfy our primary energy requirements more than ten thousand times over.
With the exception of nuclear, tidal and geothermal energy, all sources of energy can be traced back to radiation coming from the sun. Solar energy not only creates biomass and all fossil energy sources, but also causes wind and hydro power. If we combine various renewable energy sources and increase their efficiency, we will be able to largely replace fossil and nuclear energy sources within a few decades. Biomass will play a particularly important role in this process as it is the only renewable energy source that can be economically processed and stored in order to guarantee our future mobility.

Today’s energy is still reliant on fossil energy sources such crude oil, natural gas and coal. As a result, we are not only consuming the energy reserves formed over many hundreds of millions of years in a very short span of time, but we are also forcing future generations to live in a potentially unpredictable climate. When we use fossil energy sources we release the carbon dioxide (CO₂) synthesized or bonded by plants and previously held captive in underground hydrocarbon reservoirs. The climatic conditions we take for granted today could only evolve after most of the CO₂ formerly in the atmosphere had been extracted through photosynthesis in plants. Since the industrial revolution began the CO₂ level in the atmosphere has increased by more than 30% — resulting in probably the highest levels for last 20 million years!

All plants grow according to the same principle: Using the sun’s energy as the driving force, CO₂, water and small amounts of plant nutrients combine to form biomass. This process also gives off a by-product, oxygen, so essential for animal and plant life. Biomass energy has been used by human beings down through the ages as a source of food, fodder or fuel to generate heat. For example, before tractors were introduced about one-third of all European agricultural area was reserved for oats and other “energy plants” to produce fodder for working animals. If biomass is used as an energy source, nature’s carbon cycle is merely extended since if the biomass were not used for chemical or energy processes, it would decay naturally by absorbing oxygen to break down into CO₂, water, nutrients and heat energy. Upon combustion, SunDiesel^® releases only as much CO₂ as was previously absorbed by the biomass that was used to produce the fuel.

In the Process developed by CHOREN Industries, the carbohydrates in the biomass are first broken down into short chain molecular constituent parts. The high-energy basic elements, carbon and hydrogen, can then be recombined or synthesized to form long hydrocarbon chains. The result is a hi-spec transport fuel able to meet the stringent requirements for current and future combustion engines or even fuel cells yet immediately compliant with the existing retail infrastructure.

"SunDiesel^® made by CHOREN" is our contribution towards sustainable mobility decoupled from the instability and volatility of the crude oil markets. Only then can we guarantee future mobility without further damage to our climate. While at the same time simultaneously increasing the nation’s potential to exploit its natural resources or raw materials and creating jobs in one of the most important sectors of the future – "biomass to energy".