Cellulosic Ethanol

Futurol™

Futurol™ Technology aims at producing advanced biofuel (2G bioethanol) and biobased monomers from lignocellulosic biomass (forest and agricultural residues, energy crops).

Futurol™ process

As the outcome of a 10 years R&D project, with extensive operation of our pre-commercial and industrial scale plants, Futurol™ offers a unique and reliable 4-step conversion process:

• Biomass Pretreatment: Lignocellulosic biomass is deconstructed into its three major components: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. It produces a standardized and homogeneous substrate with excellent properties.
• Biocatalysts production: Required biocatalysts (microorganisms) are produced on site using a fraction of the substrate from Pretreatment: enzymes (secreted from fungi cultures) and yeasts (propagated from dried yeast).
• Hydrolysis & Fermentation: Two different operations are performed simultaneously using biocatalysts: enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated biomass into sugar monomers and fermentation of these sugars into ethanol by yeasts.
• Products Recovery: Fermented mash from Hydrolysis & Fermentation is treated to separate and recover the different products: fuel grade ethanol, lignin, clarified stillage and CO₂.

Futurol™ and the Bioeconomy

Futurol™ is not only a breakthrough technology for cellulosic ethanol production from local bio-resources, it is also an efficient and flexible platform for next-generation bio-chemicals synthesis. A myriad of molecules can be derived from Futurol™ and that is the key to striving towards a sustainable environment:

• Bio-ethylene,
• Bio-butadiene,
• 2G sugars

Moreover, all effluents from Futurol™ process can be reused as valuable co-products in accordance with the circular economy concept:

• Lignin and stillage: in-situ bio-energy generation, agricultural fertilizer, bio-material for construction…
• Biogenic CO₂: food and beverage industry, building block for chemicals, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)...