The sunliquid process uses a bespoke enzyme mixture to hydrolyze cellulose and hemicellulose chains to form sugar monomer—i.e., saccharification. The enzymes are highly optimized based on feedstock and process parameters, resulting in maximum yields and short reaction times under optimal conditions.

Using optimized microorganisms, the sunliquid one-pot system simultaneously converts both C₅ and C₆ sugars to ethanol, delivering up to 50% more ethanol than conventional processes which convert only C₆ sugars.

Clariant has been operating a pre-commercial plant in Straubing, which produces up to 1,000 metric tons of cellulosic ethanol from around 4,500 metric tons of raw material every year, since July 2012.

At the Haltermann Carless production site in Hamburg, the bioethanol is mixed with selected components to form the innovative fuel whose specifications represent the potential for the quality of E20 fuel in Europe.

In the fleet test with Mercedes-Benz vehicles, sunliquid 20 exhibited very good combustion properties with a high degree of efficiency and identical consumption compared to today’s standard E10 fuel. Due to the slightly lower energy density of E20 compared to E10, slightly higher fuel consumption was expected under the same operating conditions. The tests performed under laboratory conditions demonstrated variability in the consumption analysis in which additional consumption between 0 and 3 percent was observed.

In addition to the performance, an improvement in particle count emissions by around 50% was measured for sunliquid 20 versus the EU reference fuel Euro 5.

In addition to the higher CO₂ savings and reduced emissions, the fuel has a significantly higher octane number (RON) of more than 100. With a widespread introduction of E20, engines could be adapted in the future so that the quality advantage of the fuel could be used to improve engine efficiency and thus further reduce fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions.