Waste-to-Ethanol Plant to be Built in Romania

Clariant has announced its plan to invest in a new full-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Romania. When complete, the new facility will produce ethanol from agricultural residues using sunliquid technology.

The facility will be a flagship site to demonstrate the competitiveness and sustainability of the sunliquid technology at commercial scale. Earlier this year, Clariant also announced that it signed its first sunliquid technology license agreement with Enviral, Slovakia's largest bioethanol producer. The agreement will see Enviral use Clariant's technology to construct a full-scale commercial plant for cellulosic ethanol production in Slovakia.

The new plant is expected to deliver its first batch of products in 2020. It will be capable of processing approximately 250,000 tons of wheat straw and other cereal straw annually, which will be sourced from local farmers. By-products from the process will also be used for the generation of renewable energy with the goal of making the plant independent from fossil energy sources.