by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In New York, Sweetwater Energy announced a 50/50 joint venture with Naturally Scientific, Inc. to produce sugar from waste carbon dioxide.
The new technology converts carbon dioxide taken directly from the emissions of industries such as ethanol refineries, natural gas power plants and many others, into usable sugars.
The joint venture expands Sweetwater’s sugar-production reach beyond biomass-based, second-generation feedstocks into third-generation feedstocks. Sweetwater’s new ultra-flexible feedstock model opens up multiple new ways of delivering quality sugars to customers for a cost believed much lower than the current market can provide.
…
Naturally Scientific unveiled its patented solution in 2010 which converts waste CO2, water & light in a photosynthetic reaction to grow palisade layer plant cell culture that produces low-cost sugar – glucose and sucrose. This natural sugar can be sold in crystallised or concentrated liquid syrup form or alternatively it is used in the second process as the necessary carbon source for vacuole cells of rapeseed (or other oil seeds) to produce pure vegetable oils (PVO) and their valuable derivatives.
The company has constructed a demonstration plant in Nottingham, UK, that has been fully operational for two years, producing sugar and vegetable oils from carbon dioxide. The demonstration plant uses full-sized equipment that proves the technology, automated process control systems, yields and unit economics at a commercial scale. READ MORE