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AAFC-NRCan-NRC National Bioproducts Program Chemical and ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials. IRAP TechnoBusiness Meeting, January 13, 2009 John Schmidt, Serge Laberge co-Project Lead Directors. Outline. National Bioproducts Program – What is it?
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AAFC-NRCan-NRC National Bioproducts ProgramChemical and ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials IRAP TechnoBusiness Meeting, January 13, 2009 John Schmidt, Serge Laberge co-Project Lead Directors
Outline • National Bioproducts Program – What is it? • Chemicals and ethanol from lignocellulosic materials – project description • Current status
National Bioproducts Program • Joint initiative of National Research Council, Agriculture & Agrifood Canada, Natural Resources Canada • Unite university, government and industry scientists to develop bioproducts/biofuels technology for Canada • Four project areas: • Chemical and ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials • Biomaterials and biopolyols for automotive, aerospace, construction and plastics industries • Fuels and chemicals from anaerobic digestion or gasification of municipal solid waste and/or biomass • Biodiesel from marine algae
National Bioproducts Program – project criteria • Objective: Commercializable technologies within 3 – 5 years that address Canadian priorities in sustainable energy, environment and rural revitalization • From the outset, at least one industrial partner who can receive the technology; i.e., market pull rather than technology push • More than one participant • Will stand up to life-cycle assessment
Chemicals and ethanol from lignocellulosic materials - Two lignocellulose value chains • Forestry (chemical pulp mills) • Cellulose most valuable for pulp ($800/t) • Chemicals/fuels from lignin and hemicellulose • Agricultural residues and other wood • Fractionate biomass to separate lignin from cellulose • Two uses for cellulose: • Fibres for biomaterials (e.g. flax) • Ethanol via thermal or biological conversion • Lignin and hemicellulose to chemicals • Pyrolysis – bio-oil and char
Lignin activities • Interesting opportunities identified based on price, volume and market stability: • Substitute for phenol ($1500/t) in phenol-formaldehyde resins (FPInnovations, BRI) • Substitute for carbon black ($2000/t) in tires (FPInnovations, Lakehead University (Prof. A. Chen), BRI) • Carbon fibre – currently made from polyacrylonitrile ($3,000/t) (FPInnovations, University of British Columbia (Prof. J. Kadla)) • Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) from pyrolysis chars and use of the SWCNTs in the above applications (SIMS, above researchers, also biomaterials and gasification projects)
Hemicellulose • Hemicellulose from wood prehydrolysis, mild acid treatment of agricultural residues • Furfural – maximum 50% yield from acidolysis of xylose • 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) – from 6-carbon sugars • Nanocatalysis to improve yields of furfural and HMF • Nanocatalytic transformation of HMF to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid • FPInnovations and a member company, BRI
Cellulosic ethanol • Biomass fractionation: • Physical/chemical methods (Dr. J. Hawari, BRI) • microwave/ultrasound techniques to accelerate chemical separation of lignin from cellulose • Enzymatic methods (Dr. Peter Lau, BRI) • Feruloyl esterase, cutinase (alfalfa, triticale) • Aromatic chemicals derived from lignin, e.g.ferulic acid, vinyl guaiacol, vanillin • Cellulose degradation: • Hyperthermophilic cellulases (Dr. W. Sung, IBS, S. Laberge, J. Simmonds, A. Laroche, AAFC) • Pentose fermentation: • Genetic manipulation of S. cerevisiae to improve xylose uptake and fermentation (Dr. M. Whiteway, BRI)
Increased furfural yield Hemicellulose Furandicarboxylic acid HMF PF resins, carbon fibre Lignin SWCNT, bio-oil Lignin in tires Aromatic acids Cellulose Pentose fermentation Fuel Hyperthermophilic cellulases Summary of value chains and activities Biomass Fractionation (bioconversion, pyrolysis, microwave or ultrasound)
Status • Still actively seeking industrial participants who can contribute to project objectives and develop the technologies to full commercial scale • Advisory Board meeting on December 5 • General comment to focus on fewer activities • Development of business cases to determine most promising objectives
Thank you for your attention! John.schmidt@fpinnovations.ca