Copenhagen, Denmark - 4 August 2014 - BioGasol ApS (“BioGasol”), the market leader in advanced pretreatment reactors for the thermochemical extraction of sugar from biomass, announces that it has non-exclusively licensed Sweetwater Energy Inc. (“Sweetwater”), the Rochester, NY-based cellulosic sugar producer, to manufacture, for its own use, BioGasol’s proprietary Carbofrac® reactors. Financial details were not disclosed.
As part of this enhanced collaboration, building on the supply of an initial pre-treatment reactor to Sweetwater in January 2013, Sweetwater has granted BioGasol access to aspects of its wide-ranging process patent-families related to pretreatment. This empowers BioGasol to further develop robust field proven technology at its base in the heart of Denmark’s industrial biotechnology R&D cluster, and expand the company’s activities. BioGasol’s innovative Carbofrac® 400 pre-treatment reactor technology enables the low risk and economically feasible conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks to highly fermentable sugars suitable for producing bioethanol, bioplastics and biochemicals. Through precision thermochemical control coupled with an innovative mixing system, all substrates within the Carbofrac® reactor are treated uniformly, resulting in a high yielding, highly scalable, process. By licensing Sweetwater, BioGasol’s reactors can be produced closer to the North American market.
Dr Anders Weber, CEO of BioGasol, commented: “This is a key step in the development of BioGasol’s business as we enable licensed North American production of our Carbofrac® line of pretreatment reactors. We are impressed with Sweetwater’s rapid achievements in making cellulosic biofuels and biochemicals work. We see this deeper collaboration significantly boosting the use of our Carbofrac® technology in North America, and we look forward to continuing our productive relationship with Sweetwater.
Arunas Chesonis, Chairman and CEO of Sweetwater, added: “Our collaboration with BioGasol has worked well, and this enhanced collaboration is fundamental to paving the way for the large scale production of fuel and raw materials for the chemical industry from cellulosic feedstock. In particular, it enables us to maximise the amount of sugar that can be extracted from cellulosic feedstock by making certain process adaptations to suit regional conditions and needs.”
About BioGasol: www.biogasol.com
BioGasol ApS is a Danish biotechnology company founded in January 2006 as a spinout from the Technical University of Denmark, DTU. Among other biological renewable energy technologies, the Company develops, manufactures and licenses pretreatment solutions including the Carbofrac™ series, which are precision controlled, scalable, high yielding thermochemical reactors - now at a commercial stage. The Carbofrac™ process is based upon extensive research and development work at DTU since 1994. Today BioGasol has just over 30 employees and has since 2006 demonstrated its equipment in a series of successfully up-scaled pilot and demo plants. Its sister company, C5 Labs ApS, has among others developed proprietary high-yield pentose/hexose co-fermentation technology.
About Sweetwater Energy: www.sweetwater.us
Sweetwater Energy uses a unique, patented technology to produce a low-cost, highly fermentable cellulosic sugar solution from non-food biomass. This sugar solution is sold to biorefineries, which use it to produce biofuels, biochemicals, and bioplastics. Unlike petroleum-based technologies, Sweetwater Energy’s process uses carbon from renewable biomass that is grown or procured domestically, and significantly reduces greenhouse gases. Sweetwater designs, builds, owns and operates cellulosic sugar production facilities, and sells these sugars to exacting customer standards, thereby reducing risk for customers and partner companies.
Issued for and on behalf of BioGasol by Instinctif Partners.
For more information please contact:
BioGasol ApS:
Anders Weber
CEO
+45 8820 4879
Media Enquiries – Instinctif Partners:
Melanie Toyne-Sewell / Daniel Gooch
+44 (0)20 7866 7905
biogasol@instinctif.com
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