HCL CLEANTECH HISTORY

Enabling conversion of Biomass to Bio-Fuels and Bio-Products

A process with a history

For over a 100 years. Scientists used concentrated hydrochloric acid hydrolysis of biomass  as an analytical method to determine the composition of the sugars, lignin and tall oils in the lignocellulose.

During WW2, the Germans were looking for alternative sources of energy as they foresaw the Allied Forces would do everything to cut them off supplies of fossil fuel. They chose a process developed by a Nobel Prize winner: Dr. Bergius, for hydrolyzing wood chips into sugars using concentrated HCl and fermenting the sugars into ethanol using Yeast. A number of large facilities were built and ran continuously until the war was over.

After the war the US army, the Russian army and the British army sent teams of engineers to study that industry. HCL CleanTech was allowed to access detailed reports from all 3 army archives. From those it was clear that the main reason this process has not been used on such a large scale since then was the cost of the recovery of the acid. The founders set out to solve that problem and as it was proven on a lab scale, HCL CleanTech was incorporated.

View our Recent Press Release on our Ethanol Process Details