S2G Biochemicals knows what to do with glycerin byproduct created through biodiesel production and, after attending an investment event that allowed the company to present its abilities to a group of Silicon Valley investors, a lot more people might now know what it does with glycerin too. The company has developed a process that converts renewable sugars like C6 glucose or fructose, C5 xylose or arabinose, or most importantly for biodiesel producers, C3 glycerin. According to the company, &ldquo;The two-stage, sugar-to-glycol process involves a catalytic hydrogenation&rdquo; of the feedstocks to intermediate alditols (e.g., xylose to xylitol), which is followed by a second hydrogenolysis stage that converts the alditols to mixed glycols. Those glycols can then enter what the company says is an $18 billion market for glycols.
 S2G Biochemicals employs a continuous, liquid phase reaction at high temperatures and pressures using metal catalysts it says are widely available and economical. &ldquo;The overall conversion efficiency is 85 to 95 percent.&rdquo; Working with International Polyol Chemical Inc., a sugar-to-glycol hydrocracking technology developer, the company put the process to the test in 2005 at a Northern China pilot plant and in 2007, it built a 200,000 ton per year plant that boasts $200 million in revenue per year, according to the company. S2G Biochemicals already partnered with an engineering firm and Lignol Innovations Corp. to test Lignol&rsquo;s C5/C6 &ldquo;soup&rdquo; with the glycol production process.
 Dallas Kachan, managing partner of Kachan &amp; Co., a cleantech consulting firm that helped put on the event, explained that the investment firms present liked what they saw.

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