HCL CleanTech

Wood to cellulosic sugars technology company

Incorporated in December 2007, HCL CleanTech is a U.S.-Israeli biofuels technology development company co-founded by Eran Baniel, the company's CEO, and two of Israel’s most prominent industrial chemical research scientists, Avraham Baniel and Ari Eyal. In April 2010, the company chose North Carolina as the site for its administrative headquarters and first pilot plant. It has since been given $100 million by the state of Mississippi to build its first commercial scale production facilities.

HCL CleanTs technology utilizes hydrochloric acid? to break down lignocellulose to simple sugars which are subsequently fermented into fuel alcohol?, diesel? or aviation fuels?. In the process, HCL CleanTech has radically improved the economics of an old, industrially-proven German process: the company converts biomass to fermentable sugars then recovers the hydrochloric acid? for maximum efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of such conversion will be key to gaining more sustainable biofuels in North Carolina and nationally. North Carolina, with 17.6 million acres of forest land, is particularly well-suited to both benefit from and assist companies working for fuels based on woody biomass.

The company is a leading developer of full process technology for conversion of woody biomass to fermentable sugars, tall oils, and high-quality lignin. The sugars will be converted to advanced biofuels and bioproducts?, while the tall oils have multiple industrial uses. The high-quality lignin can either be used as a source of energy, or used as a feedstock for the composite material industry.

HCL CleanTech offices are located at the Biofuels Accelerator facility at the Biofuels Center of North Carolina in Oxford. Located on the 426-acre Biofuels Campus, the Biofuels Accelerator was established to support the development of sustainable solutions for North Carolina’s biofuels industry. The pilot plant will be located at Southern Research Institute’s Advanced Energy and Transportation Technologies Center in Durham.