AAFC-NRCan-NRC National Bioproducts Program Chemical and ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials

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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

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Outline

• National Bioproducts Program What is it?
• Chemicals and ethanol from lignocellulosic
  materials project description
• Current status

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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)

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Summary of value chains and activities
Biomass Fractionation (bioconversion, pyrolysis,
microwave or ultrasound)
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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

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Thank you for your attention!
John.schmidt_at_fpinnovations.ca