Metla Project 3570
Wood and other biomasses as a raw material for ethanol, hemicellulose and platform chemical production
Duration: 2012-2014
Research Programme: ForestEnergy2020
Objectives
In this project we study the use of wood an other biomass as a raw material for bioenergy and biorefinery products. The focus of the work is the further development of different types of fractionation methods for industrial applications. The primary target is to give diverse possibilities for the wood and other biomass refining.
In this project we study the possibilities to utilize forest chips, straw, Sphagnum mosses and saw dust as source of bioethanol, pentosesugars, biocoal and lignin. Biomasses will be fractionated with pressurized hot water into dissolved sugar monomers, hemicelluloses, celluloses and solid lignocellulose. The fractionated hemicelluloses will be hydrolyzed into sugar monomers, which will be utilized either as pentosesugars or will be fermented into bioethanol. The remaining solid fraction will be fractionated to lignin and cellulose. Cellulose will be hydrolyzed to sugars and fermented to bioethanol or torrefied to biocoal. The production of bioethanol, special sugars and lignin at a same production unit enables the optimization of product selection in such a way that the raw material can be utilized as l products, liquid or solid energy products or process energy.
The suitability of the raw materials used in this project has not been studied for these purposes earlier. The forest chips include a mixture of tree species and tree structural components, and the optimal conditions for PHWE of such material are not yet known. The outcome of this project will support the development of the fractionation technologies and R&D of higher value products and utilization of raw materials that have not been used earlier. The study emphasis in PHWE method improvement is to reduce the consumption of process water and increase the hydrolyzation of hemicelluloses during the first extraction. The second extraction concentrates on the separation of lignin and cellulose.
Project leader:
Ilvesniemi, Hannu
The Finnish Forest Research Institute,
Vantaa Unit,
PO Box 18 (Jokiniemenkuja 1), FI-01301 VANTAA, FINLAND
Phone: +358 29 532 2440
E-mail: hannu.ilvesniemi@metla.fi
Other researchers:
Kantola, Marjatta, VA (2013), Kitunen, Veikko, VA (2012-13), Tapanila, Tarja, VA (2012-13)
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Updated 02.02.2013
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