Pretreatment

The pretreatment step opens the plant's cell wall structure, which is a lattice of crystalline polymeric sugars intertwined with lignin. DDCE has developed a mild process to minimize inhibitors and capital expense. The first pretreatment we are commercializing is a dilute ammonia process. It provides a number of benefits. Ammonia is a relatively inexpensive and common industrial chemical; it can be easily recycled in the process; and it is a fermentation nutrient, which helps to keep input costs down. Because it is easily dispersed in the preprocessed biomass, it can be used at low concentrations, and at low temperature and pressure. Finally, our engineering design produces excellent results with short residence time.

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