What PROESA™ does

PROESA™ is a ‘second-generation’ cellulosic biomass technology. It takes non-foodchain crops, or feedstocks, like Arundo donax (giant reed) or agricultural waste material (like sugarcane bagasse), and ‘softens them up’ to turn them into separate streams of different types of sugary liquids. These processed sugars can then be used to produce biofuels and biochemicals that meet emerging national requirements and have a smaller environmental footprint than fuels and chemicals made from oil or natural gas.

Because PROESA™ is designed to use non-food crops and due to the efficiency of our process, we expect to deliver market-leading cost of sugars without subsidies, helping speed widespread adoption of bio-products.  

The science

PROESA™ combines an enzymatic pre-treatment process with fermentation. Our process runs significantly faster than other enzymatic hydrolysis approaches, is acid-and alkali-free and has minimal byproducts. Our parameters are adjustable, providing flexibility in the desired output of C5 sugars, C6s and lignin to be used in the production of ethanol or chemicals. Our approach provides better overall performance and economics than other hydrolysis or gasification technologies that we are aware of. Our PROESA™ technology and process is covered by 21 pending patents.

Validation

We believe our technology is best validated by our rapid progress toward commercial-scale production at our Crescentino plant; and by the range of partners that have already evaluated and chosen PROESA™.  

A bright future

Our current PROESA™ process is tuned for producing output streams in proportions most useful for the production of bio-ethanol and bio-chemicals. Over 1000 plants are projected to be needed by 2025 to meet global demand for these products. In addition, we are working with partners to develop additional advanced processes.