Technology

The Sweetwater Solution

Sweetwater uses patent-pending technology to produce sugars from several types of biomass—from agricultural residues to harvested wood—in a way that is more economical than the industry can currently provide. Not only are the sugars perfect for use in today’s biofuel, biochemical and bioplastics refineries, but leftover lignin is burned internally to power our facilities.

The technology uses a unique modular approach to produce sugars that are both less expensive for the end user and far more environmentally friendly than today’s corn-grain based sugar extraction methods.

Sweetwater’s team of scientists, led by one of the world’s most renowned leaders in bioconversion technology, Sarad Parekh, Ph.D., has devised a way to dramatically increase the efficiency of extracting fermentable sugars from a variety of biomass types. The technology generates separate and concentrated individual streams of C5 and C6 sugars, allowing a single processing site to serve the needs of multiple customers.

Researchers at M.I.T. and at other partner companies have confirmed that the Sweetwater process produces highly fermentable sugars for its broad application in biofuels and bioplastics. Since these sugars are derived from the cellulose of plant material, yet are fully compatible with today's biorefineries, Sweetwater's technology will provide a smooth, incremental bridge for these refineries to move from corn-grain feedstocks to the cellulosic feedstocks of the future.