Advanced BioFuels USA

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) … Estonia – a NATO country that borders Russia. U.S. based Sweetwater Energy received final acceptance of its first commercial Sunburst unit at the Sweetwoods Project in Estonia, proving that Sunburst has met all criteria—including energy usage, throughput, and quality of product.

In today’s Digest, the Digest exclusive interview with Arunas Chesonis, Sweetwater’s CEO, details on the lead company in the Sweetwoods consortium, Estonia-based Fibenol, plans for the future, and more.

The Backstory

Let’s start with a bit of background on the Sweetwoods project. It is a Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU)-funded venture that uses sustainable hardwood to demonstrate how Sunburst’s breakthrough pretreatment technology, in combination with tailored enzymatic solutions, can provide high-quality lignin and wood sugars at an industrial scale.

Sweetwater Energy uses a unique technology for producing low-cost nanofibrillated cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, cellulosic sugars, and clean lignin from non-food plant materials to help meet the modern world’s increasing bioenergy and biochemical demands. The company began in 2009 as a spinout from the Rochester Institute of Technology with funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and is now in the beginning stages of planning its first commercial facility.

Fibenol is developing this first of a kind wood fractionation plant in Estonia with ambition to transform wood bioprocessing industry to more efficient and cleaner industry. Concept allows woody biomass to reach significantly wider end-use applications than conventional biorefineries do and use more than 90% of the wood fiber in the raw material to be converted into high value products. Final commissioning and ramp up to design capacity of the plant is targeted into mid-2023.

The Project

Fibenol needed a technology that could efficiently process different wood species into high- purity cellulosic sugars and lignin, while having a minimal physical and ecological footprint.  The Sunburst pretreatment module requires less than 250 square meters to convert wood flakes into easily pumpable homogenous liquified wood slurry.

On top of that, the Sunburst pretreatment system has proven itself incredibly reliable, reaching full commissioning in fewer than 30 runs and taking less than 45 minutes from startup of the system to reach in-spec conditions. Its output products are highly pure and largely free of unwanted byproducts, making the industry’s dream of a true biomass biorefinery possible.

The high quality of Sunburst’s sugar has already translated into top fermentation performances for the production of bio-isobutene—a key ingredient to replace fossil-based products in the energy, materials and cosmetics markets. READ MORE