Lignol announces realignment of senior management responsibilites

VANCOUVER, May 17 /CNW/ - Lignol Energy Corporation (TSX-V: LEC) ("Lignol" or "the Company"), a leading technology company in the cellulosic ethanol and biorefining sector, today announced changes of responsibilities for various executives as the Company increases its focus on the global marketing of the demonstration and commercial phases of its technology.

The international nature of the markets for Lignol's technology and high purity HP-L(TM) lignins has led to a realignment of responsibilities for certain executives in the Company in order to more effectively develop corporate opportunities. These changes include the promotion of Raymond Ma to Senior Vice President, Engineering and Process Development, the recruitment of Chris Moser as Vice President, Process Development, as well as David Turner reassuming responsibility as Chief Financial Officer.

Raymond Ma has been with Lignol for the past three years overseeing the development of Lignol's advanced integrated pilot plant and engineering package. His promotion to Senior Vice President Engineering and Process Development is in response to the increasing need for management of third party due diligence, project development and the relationships with key suppliers of equipment and engineering services.

Chris Moser has joined the Company as Vice President Process Development after working as a consultant to Lignol for the past six months. He is a Chemical Engineering graduate from University of British Columbia and has had a long and distinguished career in the chemical process technology field, including being the Director of Technology at Kvaerner Chemetics responsible for the advancement & commercial deployment of technologies.

David Turner has been with Lignol for five years where he has held a variety of positions including serving initially as Chief Financial Officer and then as Executive Vice President, with management oversight at various times for lignin market development, research and development and intellectual property. With these changes, he will continue to provide oversight of Lignol's IP portfolio and reassume responsibilities as Lignol's Chief Financial Officer. Lignol's current Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Charpentier, will continue to work under contract for a period of time assisting David Turner in the transition and will work on various projects.

"These changes are in response to the need for Lignol to more effectively interface with our technology partners and develop commercial project opportunities," said Lignol's President and CEO, Ross MacLachlan. "Adding bench strength to our engineering efforts with the addition of a seasoned professional like Chris Moser meets a timely need as we begin to translate data from our Pilot Plant into detailed designs for demonstration and commercial plants. We need to have a technical interface with project partners as interest grows in Lignol from around the world. Prior to joining Lignol, Raymond Ma held senior positions with responsibility for the international marketing and commercialization of technology and his promotion to this new role is a natural evolution of his tenure at Lignol. David Turner is an experienced CFO with substantial international business experience who has held a variety of senior executive positions with large public and private corporations, having led several financing transactions involving foreign issuers on international stock exchanges."

About Lignol

Lignol (TSX-V: LEC) is a Canadian company undertaking the development of biorefining technologies for the production of fuel-grade ethanol and other biochemical co-products from non-food cellulosic biomass feedstocks. Lignol's modified solvent based pre-treatment technology facilitates the rapid, high-yield conversion of cellulose to ethanol and the production of value-added biochemical co-products, including high purity HP-L(TM) lignins. HP-L(TM) lignin represents a new class of high purity lignin extractives (and their subsequent derivatives) which can be engineered to meet the chemical properties and functional requirements of a range of industrial applications that until now has not been possible with traditional lignin by-products generated from other processes. Lignol is executing on its development plan through strategic partnerships to further develop and integrate its core technologies on a commercial scale. Lignol also intends to invest in, or otherwise obtain, equity interests in energy related projects which have synergies with its biorefining technology. For more information about Lignol, please visit our website at www.lignol.ca.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution concerning forward-looking statements:

Certain statements contained in this document may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include, without limitation, statements or information about our ability to fund our Baseline Operations, (using the definition of "Baseline Operations" as set out in Lignol's Management's Discussion & Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for the three and nine-month periods ended January 31, 2010), the development status of our fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant in Burnaby, British Columbia, the planning and development of our previously proposed cellulosic ethanol commercial demonstration plant, our ability to exploit commercial opportunities and broaden our market opportunities for a range of cellulosic derivatives and environmentally sustainable biochemicals and our ability to pursue these opportunities with strategic partners. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or words and phrases that state or indicate that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such statements or information reflect Lignol's current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions including, without limitation, our ability to establish the validity of our technology at the fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant scale, our ability to satisfy the conditions of existing government grants and to obtain new additional grants, our ability to finance and complete the development of the commercial demonstration plant, our ability to develop our products, our ability to obtain requisite regulatory approvals and our ability to enter into agreements with strategic partners on terms acceptable to us. Forward-looking statements and information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors could cause Lignol's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information, including among other things, the technological challenges that remain to be surpassed in obtaining the necessary operating data from our fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant that is required prior to completing the next design scale-up of the technology, the complexity of the development of the commercial demonstration plant, financial market conditions which will effect Lignol's ability to finance its operations, risks relating to the protection of Lignol's core technology from infringement and those risk factors which are discussed elsewhere in documents that Lignol files from time to time with securities regulatory authorities. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements or information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements and information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. All written and oral forward-looking statements and information attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements.

For further information: Lignol Energy Corporation, Paul Hughes, Vice President - Corporate Development & Communications, Tel: [phone], Email: [email protected]; The Equicom Group, James Smith, Investor Relations, Tel: [phone] ext. 229, Email: [email protected]