PBI Achieves Major Commercialization Milestone As Innovative Pressure-Based UST Platform Inches Closer to Officially Entering The Market

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After years in development, an exciting new technology is finally expected to hit the market this year as Pressure BioSciences, Inc. PBIO (PBI) announces the commercialization of its patented Ultra Shear Technology (UST). The pressure-based tech will enable companies across a broad range of industries — from food and beverage to agriculture to pharmaceuticals — to develop more effective, more affordable products for consumers. 

As the company focuses on CBD-infusions and food and beverage applications to start, it expects to generate revenue from UST before the end of the year and has bold plans to expand into other industries as the commercial roll out continues. Here’s a look at what the technology does and PBI’s strategy for bringing the innovative platform to market during the second half of 2022.

The Breakthrough Potential of Ultra Shear Technology

The UST platform combines ultra-high pressure (above 40,000 psi) with highly intense shearing to break down oil drops into a tens of millions of nano-sized oil droplets (a  “nanoemulsion”) where the oil droplets are so small that they can’t easily recombine into larger drops, like they do in standard emulsions. 

Standard emulsions include things like salad dressings or nut butters. You’ve likely noticed that after they sit for a while, the oil in the bottle separates from the other ingredients, forcing you to shake or stir it to reincorporate it into one solution again.

“Shake well before using”. Consumers are told to do this all the time.  Why? Because separation of oil-based products happens at smaller scales, too. In many of the most promising health and wellness supplements, for example, oil-based nutrients and vitamins separate and recombine as the supplement sits on store shelves. This recombination can significantly reduce the effectiveness of the wellness product - which is bad for both the manufacturer and the consumer. Consequently, consumers are constantly asked to “shake well before using”.

Processing with UST may bring about a whole new world: one in which oil and water do mix and one in which consumers should never again be asked to “shake well before using”! 

In its non-nano oil droplet form, these supplements are difficult for the body to absorb. According to the World Health Organization, as little as 6% of CBD oil is absorbed by the body when the oil is not in nanoemulsion form; the rest passes through the system unused. 

So wellness products like CBD-infused beverages or astaxanthin supplements pass through the digestive system without getting fully absorbed. Without the invention of UST, companies currently work around this by using higher quantities of the active ingredient in the oil, but that drives up the cost of production and makes it difficult to establish reliable dosages to get a better sense of what dosing is needed to produce certain health benefits. 

With the nanoemulsions created by UST, these oil-based ingredients essentially become water-soluble. That means products have a longer shelf life, so that settling and separation are less of an issue and, above all, the ingredients are much more readily absorbed by the body.

Studies of the technology confirm that UST-produced nanoemulsions remain shelf stable for at least 18 months after production and that there’s a significant increase in absorption rate compared to standard oil formulas.

Translating Potential into Profit

Now that its innovative UST platform is finally near commercialization, PBI is in aggressive outreach mode, with plans to achieve a revenue stream from the leasing and licensing of the new technology before the end of this year. 

A big part of that outreach strategy is the BaroShear Max, an industrial-scale version of the UST platform that was installed at The Ohio State University’s (OSU’s) College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. There, members of the food industry consortium formed by PBI and OSU last year can witness demonstrations of the technology across a broad range of applications.

Members of the consortium have first rights to license new applications of the technology before non-members, so PBI is optimistic that these demonstrations will yield some of the first licensing agreements of the UST platform.  The consortium is expected to begin admitting companies from the worldwide food and beverage industry as members over the coming months.

"We expect to begin placing commercial processing units into the market during the third/fourth quarters of 2022,” Richard T. Schumacher, President and CEO of PBI, said in a statement on the commercialization of the company’s latest high pressure technology.

The company isn’t just focused on consortium members, though. PBI is also preparing to drive commercialization of UST worldwide and across other industries outside of the food and beverage space.

While current key players in the HPP space, like Thyssenkrupp AG TKAMY or Kobe Steel Ltd. 5406, are still focused mainly on pasteurization or sterilization, PBI is breaking down barriers and expanding the market potential far beyond what its competitors in the space are doing.

“Everywhere oil is used in a product, we can make that oil more water soluble, more stable, more effective. The universe of potential fields includes food and beverage, nutraceuticals and other wellness products, biopharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agrochemicals, and even industrial oils and lubricants,” Schumacher recently said in an interview on the Stock Day Podcast.

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.