Clariant Opens Ethanol Facility

The Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant has started up a demonstration plant for producing cellulosic ethanol from agricultural waste in Straubing, Germany. The $34 million facility can produce up to 1,000 metric tons of ethanol per year from 4,500 metric tons of wheat straw. It will test the firm’s Sunliquid process, which features enzymes tuned to break down specific feedstocks and fermentation of sugars to generate ethanol. Clariant plans to license the technology, which it has been developing since 2006, rather than build its own commercial ethanol plants.