BlueFire Ethanol Fuels, Inc. (OTC: BFRE.OB), a leader in cellulosic ethanol production technology, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Amalgamated Research, Inc. (ARI) for the exclusive right to use its Simulated Moving Bed Chromatographic Separation (SMB) technology for the separation of concentrated sulfuric acid and simple sugars. After several years of operating experience with ARI's equipment at pilot facilities in California and Japan and recent testing at ARI's facilities, where even better than expected results were obtained, BlueFire has determined that the SMB provides the best fit for its concentrated acid hydrolysis process to convert cellulose to ethanol. By using ARI's SMB, BlueFire recovers approximately 99% of the entrained sugars in the acid/sugar stream. ARI's extensive research of the concentrated acid/sugars separation was supported by the DOE.

John Cuzens, BlueFire Chief Technology Officer, stated, "Our partnership with ARI provides BlueFire with yet another competitive advantage in the cellulosic marketplace. Their superior fractal distribution and SMB technology further enhances BlueFire's robust and efficient conversion process by efficiently separating the acid and sugar streams."