Clariant's sunliquid technology converts agricultural residue such as wheat straw into cellulosic ethanol, an advanced, sustainable biofuel. The process design for sunliquid is fully integrated and built on established process technology.
The value of the order was not disclosed. The start-up is planned for 2020.
The new plant, with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of cellulosic ethanol, will be built in southwestern Romania. The facility will be a flagship site, confirming the competitiveness and sustainability of the company's sunliquid technology on a commercial scale, supporting Clariant's sunliquid licensing business strategy.
The delivery includes a BioTrac biomass pretreatment system with a capacity of over 800 tonnes of dry biomass a day, as well as all main parts for biomass dosing, the reactor, the feeding system to the reactor, and steam separation. The pretreatment phase is an essential step in cellulosic ethanol production, and the goal is to make the cellulose accessible for further processing.
"We have successfully been using Valmet's pretreatment system in our pre-commercial sunliquid plant in Straubing for six years. During this time, we have closely worked with Valmet to verify and precisely optimize the pre-treatment process for sunliquid. We are confident that we have a reliable partner in Valmet for our sunliquid plant in Romania," commented Markus Rarbach, Head of Business Line Biofuels & Derivatives at Clariant.
"This is a very important milestone for Valmet, being the first commercial-sized BioTrac plant for cellulosic ethanol. We are very proud to receive this order from our long-term partner Clariant, who knows our system inside and out after six years of operation at their demo plant in Straubing," concluded Mattias Erixon, Manager Sales, Biomass Conversion at Valmet.
