Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) and ORLEN Południe, a member of Orlen Group (Płock, Poland; www.orlen.pl), which is a leader in the fuels and energy markets and the largest player in Central and Eastern Europe, today signed a license agreement on sunliquid cellulosic ethanol technology.
The announcement represents a significant strategic milestone for Clariant as this second license agreement for its sunliquid technology is another successful step to commercialize its highly innovative and sustainable technology. For Orlen Południe, the agreement supports the intention to realize a full-scale commercial plant for the production of cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues, which will further solidify the company’s position as a forerunner in the Polish biofuels and bio-component technologies.
“We are excited by the continued interest in our sunliquid cellulosic ethanol technology and proud to have signed this second license agreement. It shows that our long-term strategic commitment to innovation and sustainability can deliver additional growth above and beyond Clariant’s current strong portfolio”, says Hans Bohnen, Clariant’s COO.
“In line with our strategy, we consistently develop and strengthen the Group companies, including Orlen Południe. We invest in modern technologies and focus on high-margin products, as they will be crucial to maintaining our leading position in the region in the coming years. At the same time, we do not forget about corporate social responsibility and we apply solutions that significantly mitigate our environmental impact,” said Daniel Obajtek, president of the PKN Orlen Management Board.
The license agreement enables Orlen Południe to use Clariant’s sunliquid technology for the project development and plant operation it is planning to execute at its Jedlicze site in southeastern Poland, utilizing available land and the integration potential with the existing Jedlicze petroleum refinery. It is planned that the annual production capacity will be 25,000 tons.
Sunliquid (www.sunliquid.com) is an innovative biotechnological method for manufacturing cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues such as cereal straw, corn stover or sugarcane bagasse. In the completely integrated process, highly optimized, raw material-specific biocatalysts decompose cellulose and hemicellulose in high yields under stable processing conditions into fermentable sugar. The process-integrated production of the biocatalysts offers flexibility and reduces production costs. In the next step, an optimized fermentation organism simultaneously converts C5 and C6 into ethanol with high yields and short reaction times. A highly optimized purification process is instrumental in enabling all the energy required for the process to be derived from the process byproducts like insoluble lignin. The resulting cellulosic ethanol saves around 95% of CO2 emissions when compared to fossil gasoline. Since July 2012, Clariant has been operating a precommercial plant in Straubing, which produces up to 1,000 metric tons of cellulosic ethanol every year, confirming technical and economic performance. Clariant licenses the sunliquid technology platform globally. The first license was sold in September 2017. Clariant also announced investment into a first-of-its kind commercial facility in Romania, where groundbreaking took place in September 2018.