Overview
ARBOK-CRUDA turns wet organic waste into bio-crude — a dark viscous liquid that behaves like heavy oil. There is no alcohol stage: fermentation, strains and weeks of holding are out of the route entirely. The feedstock arrives wet and is not dried. The point of the technology is not that it makes a fuel product; the ARBOK-VC platform already does that. The point is the feedstock class it opens: a source without a ceiling. The dominant sustainable-aviation-fuel route is limited by how much used cooking oil the world collects. Sewage and manure are not.
Applications
Aviation fuel — the kerosene fraction directly, with no alcohol detour and no 50% blending cap. Road fuel — gasoline and diesel fractions from the same stream. Municipal sector — sewage sludge and wastewater at the point of generation. Livestock — manure and effluent from pig and dairy operations. Biogas plants — the digestate that is today a problem rather than a product.
Operating Principle
The feedstock is homogenised into a pumpable slurry at 10–25% dry solids; wetter streams are thickened, thicker ones diluted with recirculated water phase from the previous cycle. Drying is not required, and that is the structural point. The slurry is pressurised to 100–250 bar and taken to 280–350 °C, where water under pressure behaves as a reaction medium rather than a diluent and the organic matter is converted to bio-crude. Acids, alkalis and solvents are not required. Product and slurry exchange heat, pressure is released in stages, gas is separated, and the phases part into bio-crude, water phase and solids. The water phase returns to the front of the process. The bio-crude then enters the standard ARBOK-VC train.
Key Parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|—|—|
| Feedstock | sewage, manure, digestate, food-industry organics, sludge |
| Dry solids in | 10–25% |
| Feedstock drying | not required |
| Reactor pressure | 100–250 bar |
| Temperature | 280–350 °C, working range 300–350 °C |
| Residence time | 10–60 min |
| Alcohol / fermentation stage | none |
Advantages
Removes the two limits that constrain every competing route: the collection ceiling on waste oils, and the energy cost of drying a wet feedstock before it can be processed. Produces a hydrocarbon fraction directly, so the blending cap that applies to alcohol-derived jet fuel does not apply. Does not compete with food production for feedstock.
Market Potential
The EU alone generates 1.5–2 bln t of organic waste a year. The world sustainable aviation fuel market after 2030 is put at 40–60 mln t a year. In 2026 production is about 2.4 mln t — 0.8% of world kerosene consumption — and 87.53% of it comes from the one route that is running out of feedstock.
Related Technologies
ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking) · ARBOK-ZWD · ARBOK Dairy Waste