Clariant has announced the approval by the Board of Directors to invest in a new full-scale commercial plant for the production of cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues using its sunliquid technology. The new plant, with an annual production capacity of 50.000 tons, will be built in the southwestern part of Romania. The facility will be a flagship site, confirming competitiveness and sustainability of the sunliquid technology at commercial scale thus supporting Clariant's sunliquid licensing business strategy.

"Clariant is continually investing in the development of sustainable products and innovative solutions such as sunliquid. This pioneering process demonstrates the production of efficient and sustainable advanced biofuels and has great potential as a technology platform for a variety of bio-based materials. It is a further illustration 0f Clariant's successful innovation strategy, as this technology provides additional growth potential to an already strong portfolio", says Christian Kohlpaintner, Member of the Executive Committee at Clariant.

To further focus on the commercialization of bio-ethanol, licenses and enzymes, Clariant has set-up a new Business Line Biofuels & Derivatives, as part of the Business Area Catalysis. As of January 2018, all activities and costs related to the sunliquid technology platform will be transferred from Corporate Costs to the Business Line Biofuels & Derivatives.

In September this year, Clariant already announced a successful step towards increasing the commercial attractiveness of its sunliquid technology by signing the first technology license agreement with Enviral, a member of the Envien Group.

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