Cellulosic demo plant held ‘successful test’ in US

Biomaterials and sustainable fuels company Edeniq has completed a successful "performance test" at its first demo plant which exceeded the benchmark of 1,000 hours of continuous operation.

The corn-to-cellulosic facility uses Edeniq's own proprietary technology to process over 1 tonne of cellulosic feedstock per day into cellulosic ethanol.

The project was initially funded with a $20.5 million (€15.9 million) grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE), under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to retrofit and build the California-based plant as part of the DOE's Integrated Biorefinery and Biomass programme.

‘While we have been developing these ethanol technology solutions for years, being able to fully integrate and operate our own plant has given us invaluable, deeper insight into the intricacies of the process and has enabled us to continuously improve our core technologies and operations,’ says Thomas Griffin, Edeniq chief technology officer.

In addition to achieving over 1,000 hours of continuous operation, the plant sustained over 95% operational reliability and recycled portions of its wastewater to meet process demands.