ECONOL - ECOnomical cellulosic ethaNOL

The main objective of the ECONOL project is to demonstrate the possibilities for reducing the cost of cellulosic
ethanol with about 50% by exploiting 4 innovative technologies and two concepts.

The technologies developed and protected by one of the participants are:
• A Plug Flow reactor
• A Diabatic Distillation system
• Super Heated Steam dryer
• The 3D Water Sorter

ECONOL will demonstrate that it is possible to reduce the cost of straw from corn, wheat and other grain crops, by
changing from ‘combine harvesting’ and delivery of straw in ‘big-bales’ to whole crop harvesting with a forage
chopper.

ECONOL will investigate and validate the potential increase in revenues available by implementation of wax
extraction technology – a technology patented by JENA Trading.
ECONOL will develop a virtual (computer based) bio-refinery model, where ‘base case’ comprises ‘state of the art’
cellulosic ethanol technology.

The ultimate target for the virtual bio-refining model is to demonstrate and validate in a convincing way, that by
exploiting the novel technologies and concepts, it will be possible to establish commercially attractive bio-refineries
characterized by:

• Zero consumption of fossil fuel
• Zero emission of volatile organic compounds
• Zero wastewater