Antaco - Hydrothermal Carbonisation Technology

Hydrothermal carbonisation was first described in 1913 by Nobel Laureate Friedrich Bergius, and having been forgotten was reintroduced to the public in 2006 by Prof. M. Antonietti, Max-Planck-Institute, Germany. It is a simple process that takes wet and dry organic waste mixed with water, heats it to 200°C at 25 bar of pressure to drive the chemical conversion into biocoal. After dewatering it can be used as powder or formed into briquettes or pellets.

It has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions (incl. CO₂-emissions) of any organic waste to biofuel conversion process and the only by-product is clean water (no toxins).

The process itself is energy efficient in that it uses only approximately 12 – 15% of the energy produced to power itself.

Antaco’s technology uses a low-tech and low-cost process running at low temperatures and low pressure with no moving parts in a pressurized environment.

Antaco’s engineering innovation allows the commercialisation of the hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) process that has the ability of significantly addressing the major issues of waste and energy. Our technology delivers the most efficient organic waste conversion available on the market thus providing a valuable addition to the circular economy as well as a solution to our modern day carbon problem.

The conversion is simple. Organic waste is fed into our patented reactor, heated to oven temperature and pressurised. Under these conditions the natural process of hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) takes place.