A company from Lodz supplies innovative technology to biorefinery in the USA
Photo: Fotolia
Biotechnika from Łódź is a supplier of innovative technology for a biorefinery, which is being built in North Dakota (USA). The value of the project, in which Biotechnika is the sole licensor, main designer and equipment supplier, is over USD 80 million.
According to information provided by the Łódź-based company, the biorefinery will be built in Grand Forks, North Dakota. For the production of bioethanol and biogas, it will use waste from processing sugar beets from the nearby refinery American Crystal Sugar - the largest sugar producer in the United States, and waste from the plants of JR Simplot, one of the world`s largest producers of fries.
"Beet fragments that we will use as raw material are officially classified as waste in the US, and ethanol produced from waste has a significantly higher market value thanks to the incentive and subsidy scheme under the EFS (Renewable Fuel Standard) program that supports the development of renewable fuels" - explains owner of Biotechnica Tomasz Kapela.
The Polish installation allows the use of ethanol production wastes to produce high-protein feed and biogas, which, in turn, is used again for main production or - after purification - can be pumped into the natural gas network.
According to Tomasz Kapela, this solution can save about 60 percent demand for thermal energy. "This is an excellent example of a closed-circuit . It allows to significantly reduce the CO2 emissions associated with the production of bioethanol, and this opens the way to an additional increase of its value under the LCFS (Low Carbon Fuel Standard)" - he emphasises.
Before deciding to use the Polish technology, the American partners could see it in action, because a similar installation - designed and built by Biotechnica - has been successfully operating since 2012 in a plant near Kalisz.
The construction in Grand Forks has already begun, the official launch of the investment took place in August with the participation of local authorities. The plant is scheduled to be ready in early 2020.
Biotechnika has been operating in Lodz since 2007. It operates in the field of broadly understood industrial biotechnology, focusing mainly on ethanol production, design and construction of agricultural biogas plants, sewage treatment plants, crops and bio-waste processing. The company has several complex implementations in Poland and abroad. (PAP)
author: Agnieszka Grzelak-Michałowska
agm/ son/ kap/
tr. RL
Przed dodaniem komentarza prosimy o zapoznanie z Regulaminem forum serwisu Nauka w Polsce.
