Bulgaria's Eta Bio signs licence deal with Clariant, to build cellulosic ethanol plant

Swiss speciality chemicals company Clariant said that it has signed a licence agreement for its sunliquid cellulosic ethanol technology with Bulgarian agriculture company Eta Bio, which intends to build and operate a plant for the production of cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues.

The plant is planned to have an annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of cellulosic ethanol, processing around 250,000 tons of wheat straw, Clariant said in a statement on Monday.

Eta Bio intends to build the plant at a greenfield site in General Toshevo, in northeast Bulgaria.

"The realisation of the first Bulgarian cellulosic ethanol production project will help to solve one of the main challenges agricultural producers face in the region – the removal of the straw from the fields. This project will give us the chance to have an additional revenue stream from agricultural leftovers," Kiril Pavlov, managing director of Eta Bio, said.

The agreement between the two companies includes a licence of a sunliquid basic engineering package, the provision of technical services, as well as the supply of starter cultures from Clariant’s proprietary enzyme and yeast platform to process Eta Bio’s feedstock into cellulosic ethanol.

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