Sweetwater, Naturally Scientific to convert CO2 to sugar
Sweetwater Energy Inc. and Naturally Scientific Technologies Ltd. are expanding their relationship through a joint venture to produce sugar from waste carbon dioxide. The joint venture will use technology developed by Naturally Scientific that can convert carbon dioxide emissions from facilities such as ethanol plants and power plants into simple sugars.
The joint venture will add flexibility and synergies to Sweetwater’s business model targeting the ethanol industry. The company’s process produces C5 and C6 sugars from cellulosic biomass. The sugars are then sold to ethanol producers as a supplemental feedstock. The new concept could allow Sweetwater to capture carbon dioxide from those ethanol plants and use Naturally Scientific’s Stage 1 process to convert the carbon dioxide to C3 glyceraldehydes. It would also be possible to use the Stage 2 process to further process those sugars into vegetable oil.