The American company Tyton BioEnergy invented a new technology, which allows cheap and effective production of ethanol and biodiesel from tobacco. While most of the technological methods for ethanol production from cellulose require the construction of expensive bio refinery, innovation of Tyton allows existing bio-refineries that processed corn or wheat, use sugars from the tobacco with minimal modifications. For Petar Mayarenovksi the owner and the president of Tyton BioEnergy Systems, energy tobacco is the future “golden” raw material of biofuel industry. The energy tobacco contains much more sugars and fats and less lignin, which makes their extraction much easier.
The director of the Institute of Tobacco and Tobacco Products Assoc. Prof. Hristo Bozukov explains that the Bulgarian tobacco for biofuel production remains unexploited. Only tobacco leaves are used instead of throwing other parts like stalks, seeds and tendrils, they could be used for production ethanol and biodiesel, and the residual mass could be used for the production of feed and eco briquettes for heating.
The chief technologist of Esentika Todor Kuchukov said “We are following with great interest the newest technological innovations in the industry and we believe that the energy extracted from tobacco can take an important role as a raw material, which can meet our needs in a friendly way without wasting the resources on the planet.”