AAFC-NRCan-NRC National Bioproducts Program

Chemical and ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials

AAFC-NRCan-NRC National Bioproducts Program

Chemical and ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials

IRAP TechnoBusiness Meeting, January 13, 2009John Schmidt, Serge Labergeco-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)

Summary of value chains and activities

BiomassFractionation(bioconversion, pyrolysis, microwave or ultrasound)

Lignin

Hemicellulose

Cellulose

Increased furfural yield

HMF Furandicarboxylic acid

PF resins, carbon fibre

SWCNT, bio-oil

Lignin in tires

Aromatic acids

Pentose fermentation

Hyperthermophilic cellulases

Fuel

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