How It Works

Introducing
scalable synbio

The chemicals industry is one of the dirtiest in the world. It’s responsible for 30% of global carbon emissions and riddled with toxins and carcinogens—which is why they don’t share details when it comes to their process or facilities. At Solugen, we’re proud of what’s happening in our Bioforges. We produce molecules that are safe, sustainable, and more cost effective than traditional industrial chemicals. So they’re better for people and the planet.

Plant powered, planet scale

Our process brings the best of biology and technology together. We use AI to engineer enzymes and metal catalysts that can bypass the limitations of traditional fermentation. This allows us to produce molecules at room temperature using bio-based feedstocks, with no toxins and no waste.

Solugen™

90^%

Yield

Low Heat

Low Energy

No Waste

Petrochemical

60^%

Yield

High Heat

High Energy

High Waste

Fermentation

40^%

Yield

Low Heat

High Energy

High Waste

Sugars
+
Water
+
Catalysts
+
Air

Four inputs. No waste. 90% of the world’s chemicals.

A new kind of factory – The Solugen™ Bioforge™

Our utility infrastructure supplies water, compressed air, and nitrogen to the facility. We use wind energy to power this critical layer, keeping our carbon emissions at zero from the outset.
To create our bio-based products, we combine corn syrup with deionized water and compressed air. We continually pump these feedstocks into the enzyme reactor, where our engineered enzymes begin the conversion process.
Membranes keep the enzymes in the reactor and allow us to continuously harvest molecules from the reactor as the reaction takes place. The result at this stage is called the intermediate product—a substance that is only accessible via enzymatic cascades and not via traditional fermentation or thermochemicals.
The intermediate product is processed in separate processing tanks. It’s mixed with more compressed air and flowed over our engineered metal catalysts. This transforms the compound again, converting the intermediate product into the final product, achieving >90% overall yield of feedstock to product.
The final product is evaporated to remove excess water and obtain a liquid concentrate for shipping. We use 100% wind powered electricity to drive a mechanical vapor recompression evaporator, which is 10x more efficient than burning natural gas to create steam.
The final product is loaded into storage tanks and stored under an inert nitrogen atmosphere. This keeps it fresh and free of contaminants, so that it’s ready for transport.
In cases where customers want a solid final product, we take the extra step of feeding the liquid concentrate into a crystallizer to obtain a solid crystalline product. We then store that product in super-sacks or 50-pound bags.
The entire process generates zero wastewater or air emissions. An interconnected closed drain system allows all of the material we produce to be continuously collected and reworked without generating byproducts or slowing down operations.
The Bioforge achieves highly profitable and carbon negative molecular manufacturing by simultaneously satisfying four parameters: biobased feedstocks, high selectivity, high yields, and high throughput. This enables the Bioforge to convert inexpensive feedstock directly into valuable product molecules while avoiding the formation of waste products. The Solugen™ Bioforge reactor system is formed from reactors using both enzymatic and traditional catalytic units. To request proposals or purchase or license the Bioforge reactor systems, please contact us at info@solugen.com.