Suster builds on chemical and process technology research with which the University of Twente (UT) has acquired a leading international position. The company was founded in 2016 by Roel Westerhof, Bert Heesink, emeritus UT professor Wim van Swaaij and current UT professors Wim Brilman and Sascha Kersten. Bert Koning joined as a shareholder in 2021. All owners have studied or worked at the University of Twente and have also gained extensive experience in industry worldwide. Suster focuses on R&D, process development and the design and construction of pilot plants, the latter together with Erik Verbeek's Enschedese company Coraltech. Suster is working on converting biomass into valuable biofuels and biochemicals, processing waste flows and recycling plastics such as perspex and aramid, known for its super-strong fibres. Suster is also active in the field of CO2 capture, converting CO2 captured from air or gas flows into useful substances such as methanol. It serves customers in the (petro)chemical, plastics and paper industries, the metal sector, the food industry, the equipment manufacturing industry, the energy sector and the waste processing industry, among others, who want to make their processes more environmentally friendly. Thermochemical conversion processes are often used, which take place at high temperatures and sometimes also at high pressures. The challenge lies in optimising the quality and yield of the products under these extreme conditions.

Demcon Suster at Technology Base

One example of a project that Demcon Suster has been working on since 2016 is the conversion of organic waste into biokerosene, a green aviation fuel. The client has now decided to test the process developed by Demcon Suster on a larger scale in a pilot plant. Demcon Suster will build and operate this pilot plant. The plant is too large to be placed in the future laboratory at Demcon or at the University of Twente, which is why it will be located at Technology Base, which also includes the innovative Twente Airport. If the results with the pilot plant are positive, a full-scale plant will be built at a location yet to be selected.

Demcon Suster sees a strong need in the market to scale up the smaller setups used in laboratories to a larger scale. This requires larger and flexibly usable spaces where long-term experiments on a pre-production scale can be carried out within the existing permit. Technology Base seems particularly suitable for this. The arrival of Demcon Suster gives the business campus a positive impulse for further development.