Rochester, New York based Sweetwater Energy and BioGasol ApS, a Danish biotechnology company, have entered into a strategic partnership to improve sugar extraction from biomass. Sweetwater is a cellulosic sugar manufacturer and will use BioGasol’s pretreatment technology, Carbofrac, as part of an overall technological solution to increase the amount of sugar extracted from plant-based feedstocks.

“We’re very excited about this partnership,” said Arunas Chesonis, Chair and CEO of Sweetwater Energy. “The combination of BioGasol’s pretreatment technology merges so well with the advances we’ve made in hydrolysis and inhibitor reduction that the relationship almost seemed inevitable.”

Sweetwater produces low-cost sugars and then sells these sugars to refineries. The refineries then use the sugars to produce biofuels, biochemicals and bioplastics. Dr. Sarad Parekh, along with his team, developed a way to dramatically increase the efficiency of the extraction and fermentability of extracted sugars from a variety of biomass. Ultimately, this technology is able to produce cost-effective sugars that bioenergy companies can then profitably convert to next generation bioproducts.

Anders Weber, CEO of BioGasol added, “Our two companies have remarkably similar philosophies in that we both believe smaller, decentralized pretreatment and hydrolysis facilities are the key at this stage to making cellulosic biofuels and biochemicals work. Sweetwater has the business model and technology that fits perfectly with BioGasol’s high yield and flexible pretreatment equipment. We couldn’t be more enthusiastic about this partnership.”