Our Goal
We help build a world that no longer depends on finite, non-renewable fossil fuels and food for its chemicals, plastics and energy.
Our Goal
We help build a world that no longer depends on finite, non-renewable fossil fuels and food for its chemicals, plastics and energy.
Locked inside all plants are materials that are incredibly valuable, but very difficult to extract: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
Sweetwater’s Sunburst™ technology is the first to deconstruct plant material, such as wood, into these components efficiently and cleanly enough to make thousands of products that today rely on petroleum and other non-renewable sources.
Sunburst™ will make the green revolution possible.
Locked inside all plants are materials that are incredibly valuable, but very difficult to extract: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
Sweetwater’s Sunburst™ technology is the first to deconstruct plant material, such as wood, into these components efficiently and cleanly enough to make thousands of products that today rely on petroleum and other non-renewable sources.
Sunburst™ will make the green revolution possible.
Our History
Founded in 2009 from New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) funding and developed in collaboration with researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Sweetwater Energy developed and refined a patented, biomass pretreatment system with the backing from a wide group of private investors.
2009
NYSERDA grant spurs RIT researchers to found Sweetwater to extract valuable sugar from plant materials.
2012
Comet pretreatment technology evaluated at Rochester demonstration plant.
2013
BioGasol pretreatment technology acquired and installed for next phase of technical development.
2015
Sweetwater acquires Helios pretreatment technology with demonstration plant in Pennsylvania.
2017
New “Sunburst” system installed at Sweetwater demonstration plant.
2018
Sweetwoods Consortium awarded a $23m flagship BBI grant to develop high-value market applications for Sweetwater’s platform products.
2019
The first Sweetwoods commercial-scale facility breaks ground.
2020
Development work with multiple partners using specialty cellulose & lignin
2021
Commercial-scale Sunburst exceeds performance targets at Sweetwoods
2021
Formed strategic partnerships with Gevo that included formal offtake agreements
World-class, sustainable products define us.
Our patent-protected technology has been developed over ten years to produce the highest quality products in the industry.
Nanofibrillated Cellulose
Microcrystalline Cellulose
Pure Native Lignin
Clean C5-Rich Sugars
Clean C6-Rich Sugars
Mixed C5/C6 Sugars
Our Team
Sweetwater’s management team has a remarkable track record in growing technology companies from start up to multi-billion dollar revenue.
Arunas A. Chesonis
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
JackBaron
President & Executive Vice President
Scott Tudman
Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer
Algimantas Chesonis
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
James Hvsidas
Senior Vice President Real Estate & Construction
Jonathan Sherwood
Vice President of Finance
Dr. Nina Pearlmutter
Vice President of Intellectual Property
Our Partners
Gevo is commercializing the next generation of renewable gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel with the potential to achieve zero carbon emissions, addressing the market need of reducing greenhouse gas emissions with sustainable alternatives. Gevo uses low-carbon renewable resource-based carbohydrates as raw materials, and is in an advanced state of developing renewable electricity and renewable natural gas for use in production processes, resulting in low-carbon fuels with substantially reduced carbon intensity.
Soane Labs is a high-tech incubator applying polymer chemistry, precision engineering, and nano-technology to solve long- standing challenges for mature industries, to help bring new products quickly and inexpensively to market.
Graanul Invest operates in the field of bioenergy and renewable energy production, forestry and biomaterials development. The company has grown to be one of the biggest pellet producers in Europe and one of the biggest independent renewable energy producers in the Baltic Sea region. Graanul Invest produces and supplies nature-friendly, high-quality products and contributes to the preservation of the environment by providing renewable fuel to the market.
NYSERDA, a public benefit corporation, offers objective information and analysis, innovative programs, technical expertise, and funding to help New Yorkers increase energy efficiency, save money, use renewable energy, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
MetGen designs and markets novel enzymatic solutions for the most challenging of industrial conditions. MetGen’s enzymes – MetZyme® – are industrial, highly-active, natural catalysts that accelerate chemical reactions. Offering customized projects to meet customers’ specific needs, MetGen uses advances in genetic engineering and microbiology to adapt enzymes to harsh industrial conditions and to handle a variety of lignocellulosic substrates. MetGen has achieved successful industrial trials with sector leaders in the forest and renewable chemicals industries.
Leveraging its core expertise in twin-screw technology, Clextral provides its customers with turnkey processing lines that integrate extruders, dryers and ancillary equipment. Its reliable and innovative systems are quality and excellence benchmarks in its three key markets: Food & Feed, Green Industries and Powder Industries. Its global offering includes upstream design and testing of industrial solutions, equipment manufacturing, on-site installation and full maintenance and continuous process improvement services. Based in Firminy (France), Clextral is present on all five continents, providing local support to its customers in 88 countries.
Sweetwater Energy uses a unique technology for producing low-cost nanofibrillated cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, sugars, and clean lignin from non-food plant materials to help meet the modern world's increasing bioenergy and biochemical demands.