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US COMPANY Renmatix has developed a process to use supercritical water to produce sugars from woody biomass, and will now launch it commercially.

Most techniques to produce sugars from cellulose and lignin use enzymes or harsh chemicals to break it down. Renmatix says that its Plantrose process which uses supercritical (high temperature and high pressure) water is cheaper than other methods, as it does not require the use of consumables, like enzymes, and more environmentally sound as the only solvent used is water.

The technology is adaptable, so a range of different non-food feedstocks can be used depending on what is available locally, including corn cobs, switchgrass and bagasse. The biomass is first chopped up into smaller pieces and slurried with water before the lignin and cellulose are separated out in a fractionator. . These solid remains are then once again slurried with water and undergo a supercritical hydrolysis process to produce the desired C5 and C6 sugars.

The Plantrose process has so far been tested a pilot and demonstration scale, processing 3 t/d of cellulosic biomass.

“In the twentieth century, petroleum was the basis for making materials, chemicals and fuels. In the twenty-first century, sugar is replacing petroleum as the raw material for those industries,” said Mike Hamilton, CEO of Renmatix. “Renmatix will provide those sugars faster and cheaper than anyone else, and our move to the Greater Philadelphia area will enables us to attract the talented material science and engineering talent we’ll need to scale rapidly.”