Innovation from biomass

Together with Südzucker AG's research and development department, CropEnergies develops sustainable products that are made from the super molecule ethanol, plant proteins and other products of our circular economy.

Renewable ethanol is not only a highly efficient fuel, but also, for example, an excellent feedstock for sustainable and renewable basic chemicals. Also "indirect air capture" is part of our biorefining: Some of the CO₂ bound in biomass is released during the fermentation of sugar into ethanol. We capture this and make it usable. Our biogenic CO₂ has a purity of over 99%, making it an excellent feedstock for the production of synthetic fuels, for example, using green hydrogen. Synthetic fuels are another alternative to fossil fuels and are therefore ideally suited to reducing CO₂ emissions in transport - all the way to climate neutrality. Various cooperations help us to test and further optimize the advantages of these and other innovations.

“Carbon neutrality is one of CropEnergies' strategic pillars. With 90% of the energy used to run the site, Biowanze is a concrete example of a sustainable solution.

Since the site was launched, our biomass boiler - the only one of its kind in the world - has been producing the electricity and steam needed to run the entire plant.  As the bran (the outer husk of the wheat) is not used in the bioethanol production process, we recover it and feed it into our biomass boiler.High-efficiency cogeneration enables us to produce more green electricity than we need to satisfy our consumption. The surplus supplies the Wanze sugar refinery outside the countryside and the CO₂ liquefaction site, while the balance is fed into the public grid.

From 2021, biowanze is taking another step towards carbon neutrality by building a 2nd biomass boiler fuelled by wood chips.90% of the energy consumed on the site is green, derived from certified renewable and local biomass.  The proportion of fossil energy consumed (natural gas) has fallen from 35% to 10%.

Biowanze favours a short supply radius. Subject to strict selection criteria, the feed wheat comes exclusively from Belgium (50%), France and Germany.The biomass used for the 2nd boiler comes from within a 250km radius of the production site.

In the "Renewable Energies Directive", the EU stipulates sustainable certification of the entire value chain seamlessly of biomass used for green power. All biomass (solid, liquid and gaseous) used on Biowanze site are certified as sustainable under at least one of the certification systems recognised by the EU and are audited annually.

The biowanze model aims to contribute to the development of a sustainable circular economy for our region and the agricultural sector, and to the fight against climate change.

“Thanks to cogenerations, Biowanze is self-sufficient for its electricity and heat production and contribute to the european targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions"