The new Alder Lab in Colorado marks a major company milestone in the company's growth. As the hub for R&D, it features state-of-the-art analytical instruments, pilot-scale test systems, and collaborative spaces. This facility accelerates Alder Renewable Crude (ARC) and Alder Pyrolytic Sugars (APS) development, generates new intellectual property, and drives innovation – all accelerating our path towards commercialization.
Building a Home for Innovation
The transition into our new laboratory over the past year has been transformative. The Alder Lab has become the cornerstone of our innovation engine—enabling faster technology development, the creation of new intellectual property, and stronger collaboration with existing and future partners.
Working side by side in a shared lab, office, and meeting space has empowered our team to increase our technology readiness level while fostering the spontaneous brainstorming sessions that drive breakthrough ideas. Just as importantly, the Alder Lab has given us a home. We look forward to welcoming more partners, investors, and customers to see our work in action—complete with safety gear and hands-on experiments that channel our inner “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
Technical Capabilities
The Alder Lab is outfitted with analytical equipment and lab-scale process units that allow us to optimize conditions, validate performance, and ensure quality control. Bench- and pilot-scale systems are enabling longer continuous runs, such as a 100-hour campaign processing bio-oil from miscanthus grass in our custom-designed continuous fractionation system. Using our proprietary technology, our process separates fast pyrolysis oil into two streams:
Analytical testing—including gas chromatography, thermal stability assays, density, viscosity, and water content—is performed in-house to optimize every stage of production.
Looking Ahead
In its first year of operation, the Alder Lab has already delivered new testing methods, specifications, and intellectual property to advance commercialization. This includes a streamlined specification for ARC designed with input from Honeywell UOP to ensure quality control in existing refineries.
The Alder Lab is more than a facility—it’s where the future of renewable fuels is being built. It enables us to accelerate progress, strengthen partnerships, and bring our vision of decarbonized aviation and transportation fuels closer to reality.
Building momentum with technology validation, strategic partnerships, and new projects
Together with Boeing and Bioénergie AE Côte-Nord, we are launching Project Avance to produce SAF from sawmill residues in Port-Cartier, Québec. Boeing is investing CAD $10 million in the project as part of its Industrial and Technological Benefits commitment to Canada. The project will use Alder’s technology to produce Alder Renewable Crude (ARC) for hydrotreating into SAF and other hydrocarbon fuels.
Through a Joint Development Agreement with Quadrise, Alder is demonstrating Alder Pyrolytic Sugars (APS) as a renewable feedstock for advanced marine fuels. By combining our biomass conversion technology with Quadrise’s bioMSAR™ platform, the collaboration aims to deliver a scalable and cost-effective pathway to decarbonize the shipping industry—one of the hardest sectors to abate.
With NREL and industry partners, Alder has demonstrated that Alder Renewable Crude (ARC) can be co-processed in a pilot Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit to produce gasoline, jet, diesel, and marine fuels in high yield and high quality. The next steps under evaluation is commercial-scale FCC trials with industry partners, paving the way for rapid deployment of low-carbon fuels using existing refinery infrastructure.
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