Almagest

About us

The company

“Almagest” is a joint-stock company established in 2007. In 2009 the company put into operation a plant for production of ethanol from grains, located 35 km to the South-West of Sofia near the town of Ihtiman. The current annual production capacity of the plant is 30 000 000 liters of ethanol and 24 000 tonnes of DDGS (high-protein animal feed). The plant processes 80 000 tonnes of grains per year (mainly wheat and corn).

Products:

  • Bioethanol – 99.99 vol.%
  • Beverage Ethanol – 96.4 vol.%
  • Neutral dehydrated (anhydrous) ethanol – 99.99 об%
  • Denatured Ethanol
  • DDGS (Dried Distilled Grains with Solubles)

For more info please refer to section Products.

Governance

Almagest AD is governed by a Board of Directors as follows:

Lilia Bojilova – Chairperson
Nikolay Dobrilov
Julian Belev – Executive Director
Lyudmil Aleksandrov – Executive Director
Danail Kamenov – Executive Director

International activity

Almagest is a member of the European Renewable Ethanol Association (ePURE, www.epure.org).

Technology

The design, technology and supervision of the plant construction have been made by the Austrian engineering company Vogelbusch (a leader in the ethanol industry). The equipment has been delivered by first-class world producers such as Siemens, ABB, Schneider, Endress+Hauser, Vettertec, Flottweg, Kaeser, EnviroChemie. The company has 160 employees. The process groups in the plants are designed in a way which ensures minimum 350 days of operation yearly. Spare pieces of equipment are provided at all critical points, thus ensuring that the maintenance of the components does not cause pauses in the production. After the plant had been put into operation, the company continued investing in technological enhancement, increasing energy efficiency, better environmental performance and wasteless production: 2010 г. – increase of the production capacity from 60 000 to 85 000 liters of ethanol per day (30 000 000 liters per year) 2011 г. – biomass steam plant which replaced the natural gas with more efficient and environment-friendly fuel – wheat straw 2012 г. – molecular sieves installation for production of neutral dehydrated ethanol (99,99 vol.%) and bioethanol 2013 г. – waste water treatment plant under engineering and technology of the German company EnviroChemie. A modern technology was implemented to process organic waters to biogas, combining the environmental effect with increased energy efficiency 2014 г. – silo warehouse with capacity of 42 000 tonnes. The equipment is produced by the American company GSI. The equipment includes a corn drier with capacity of 1000 tonnes/day More about the technology for production of ethanol and DDGS.

Environment and Sustainability

Almagest is the only Bulgarian producer of bioethanol – dehydrated ethyl alcohol which may be used as a substitute of the gasoline in internal combustion engines. By burning bioethanol a saving of minimum 60% of green-house gas (GHG) emissions is achieved in comparison with gasoline. The technological solutions used the the plant warrant highly energy efficient production. Almagest uses exclusively products of natural origin as feedstock (corn, wheat, sorghum, etc.), as well as agricultural waste in form of wheat straw to replace the traditional natural gas as energy source.

Certificates

Almagest AD holds the following certificates:

Certificate as meeting the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 (PDF)
Certificate as meeting the requirements of HACCP Codex Alimentarius (PDF)
Kosher Certificate (PDF)
Certificate as meeting the requirements of Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and the certification system ISCC EU (PDF)
Good Manufacturing Practice Guide For Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (PDF)