Cellulosic sugars

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Cellulosic sugars are derived from non-food biomass (e.g. wood, agricultural residues, municipal solid waste). [1] The biomass is primarily composed of carbohydrate polymers cellulose, hemicellulose, and an aromatic polymer (lignin). The hemicellulose is a polymer of mainly five-carbon sugars C5H10O5 (xylose). [2] and the cellulose is a polymer of six-carbon sugar C6H12O6 (glucose). [3] Cellulose fibers are considered to be a plant’s structural building blocks and are tightly bound to lignin, but the biomass can be deconstructed using Acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, organosolv dissolution, autohydrolysis or supercritical hydrolysis. A more recent mechanical method offers hope that at last, a more economic and waste free method has been found although it is still to scale and is not yet commercial.

Contents

Biomass (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignocellulose) contain vast amounts of fermentable sugars. These sugars may be produced from a wide variety of feedstocks and can be converted into a multitude of biochemical, biofuel, and polymer products by either biological, mechanical [4] or chemical routes. [5]

Industrial use

In January 2012, BASF invested in Pennsylvania-based Renmatix to produce low-cost, large volume quantities of industrial sugar from lignocellulosic biomass (wood, cane bagasse or straw). Renmatix is currently the only commercial player utilizing supercritical hydrolysis as a route to cellulosic sugar production. [6]

Renmatix is working with multiple partners on development of commercial scale facilities with the capability to produce more than 100,000 tons of cellulosic sugars annually. [7] The company has a technical center in Pennsylvania and production operations at the Integrated Plantrose Complex (IPC) in Kennesaw, Georgia and the Feedstock Processing Facility (FPF) in Rome, New York. [8]

In June 2013, Renmatix also entered a joint development agreement (JDA) with UPM, a Finnish pulp, paper and timber manufacturer, to convert woody biomass into low-cost sugar intermediates for subsequent downstream processing into biochemicals. [9]

In December 2013, Renmatix and Virent announced a strategic collaboration to convert affordable cellulosic sugars to renewable chemicals and bio-based packaging materials. [10]

In March 2015, French Energy Group, Total S.A. entered a joint development agreement (JDA) with Renmatix to use the Plantrose technology to extract second-generation sugars from biomass and develop sustainable and profitable biomolecules for products of interest. [11]

Biotechnology Penetration in the Chemical Industry[ needs update ]

YearValuePenetration
2000 (actual)$67 billion5.3%
2005 (actual)$98 billion6.7%
2010 (forecast)$159 billion9.6%
2025 (projection)$1000 billion33%

[12]

World Biobased Market Penetration 2010-2025

Chemical Sector20102015
Commodity Chemicals1-2%6-10%
Specialty Chemicals20-25%45-50%
Fine Chemicals20-25%45-50%
Polymers5-10%10-20%

[13]

Applications

Cellulosic sugars are used as renewable resources for biochemical and biofuels industries and can be used to produce intermediates by fermentative processes. The availability of industrial sugars from renewable resources, in sufficient quantities and at a favorable cost enables the products to be cost-competitive to fossil fuel based products. [14]

A 2012 study by Nexant estimates that in the future, it will be possible and potentially economically viable to produce any type of sugar-based chemical product from biomass due to developments in cellulosic processing. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cellulose</span> Polymer of glucose and structural component of cell wall of plants and green algae

Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula (C
6H
10O
5)
n, a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants, many forms of algae and the oomycetes. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms. Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. The cellulose content of cotton fiber is 90%, that of wood is 40–50%, and that of dried hemp is approximately 57%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hemicellulose</span> Class of plant cell wall polysaccharides

A hemicellulose is one of a number of heteropolymers, such as arabinoxylans, present along with cellulose in almost all terrestrial plant cell walls. Cellulose is crystalline, strong, and resistant to hydrolysis. Hemicelluloses are branched, shorter in length than cellulose, and also show a propensity to crystallize. They can be hydrolyzed by dilute acid or base as well as a myriad of hemicellulase enzymes.

Thermal depolymerization (TDP) is the process of converting a polymer into a monomer or a mixture of monomers, by predominantly thermal means. It may be catalysed or un-catalysed and is distinct from other forms of depolymerisation which may rely on the use of chemicals or biological action. This process is associated with an increase in entropy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bagasse</span> Residue of sugar cane after juice extraction

Bagasse is the dry pulpy fibrous material that remains after crushing sugarcane or sorghum stalks to extract their juice. It is used as a biofuel for the production of heat, energy, and electricity, and in the manufacture of pulp and building materials. Agave bagasse is similar, but is the material remnants after extracting blue agave sap.

Cellulosic ethanol is ethanol produced from cellulose rather than from the plant's seeds or fruit. It can be produced from grasses, wood, algae, or other plants. It is generally discussed for use as a biofuel. The carbon dioxide that plants absorb as they grow offsets some of the carbon dioxide emitted when ethanol made from them is burned, so cellulosic ethanol fuel has the potential to have a lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biorefinery</span> Refinery that converts biomass to energy and other beneficial byproducts

A biorefinery is a refinery that converts biomass to energy and other beneficial byproducts. The International Energy Agency Bioenergy Task 42 defined biorefining as "the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of bio-based products and bioenergy ". As refineries, biorefineries can provide multiple chemicals by fractioning an initial raw material (biomass) into multiple intermediates that can be further converted into value-added products. Each refining phase is also referred to as a "cascading phase". The use of biomass as feedstock can provide a benefit by reducing the impacts on the environment, as lower pollutants emissions and reduction in the emissions of hazard products. In addition, biorefineries are intended to achieve the following goals:

  1. Supply the current fuels and chemical building blocks
  2. Supply new building blocks for the production of novel materials with disruptive characteristics
  3. Creation of new jobs, including rural areas
  4. Valorization of waste
  5. Achieve the ultimate goal of reducing GHG emissions
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iogen Corporation</span>

Iogen Corporation is a Canadian company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and was founded by Patrick Foody Sr. in 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bioplastic</span> Plastics derived from renewable biomass sources

Bioplastics are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, sawdust, recycled food waste, etc. Some bioplastics are obtained by processing directly from natural biopolymers including polysaccharides and proteins, while others are chemically synthesised from sugar derivatives and lipids from either plants or animals, or biologically generated by fermentation of sugars or lipids. In contrast, common plastics, such as fossil-fuel plastics are derived from petroleum or natural gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xylan</span> A plant cell wall polysaccharide

Xylan is a type of hemicellulose, a polysaccharide consisting mainly of xylose residues. It is found in plants, in the secondary cell walls of dicots and all cell walls of grasses. Xylan is the third most abundant biopolymer on Earth, after cellulose and chitin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lignocellulosic biomass</span> Plant dry matter

Lignocellulose refers to plant dry matter (biomass), so called lignocellulosic biomass. It is the most abundantly available raw material on the Earth for the production of biofuels. It is composed of two kinds of carbohydrate polymers, cellulose and hemicellulose, and an aromatic-rich polymer called lignin. Any biomass rich in cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin are commonly referred to as lignocellulosic biomass. Each component has a distinct chemical behavior. Being a composite of three very different components makes the processing of lignocellulose challenging. The evolved resistance to degradation or even separation is referred to as recalcitrance. Overcoming this recalcitrance to produce useful, high value products requires a combination of heat, chemicals, enzymes, and microorganisms. These carbohydrate-containing polymers contain different sugar monomers and they are covalently bound to lignin.

Treethanol is an ethanol fuel made from trees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abengoa</span> Spanish multinational company in the green infrastructure, energy and water sectors

Abengoa, S.A. was a Spanish multinational company in the green infrastructure, energy and water sectors. The company was founded in 1941 by Javier Benjumea Puigcerver and José Manuel Abaurre Fernández-Pasalagua, and was based in Seville, Spain. Its current chairman is Gonzalo Urquijo Fernández de Araoz. After repeated bankruptcies and rescues, it declared insolvency in February 2021 amid various regulatory and financial charges against the board and management, the second-largest corporate collapse in Spanish history.

Second-generation biofuels, also known as advanced biofuels, are fuels that can be manufactured from various types of non-food biomass. Biomass in this context means plant materials and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel.

Biogasoline is a type of gasoline produced from biomass such as algae. Like traditionally produced gasoline, it is made up of hydrocarbons with 6 (hexane) to 12 (dodecane) carbon atoms per molecule and can be used in internal combustion engines. However, unlike traditional gasoline/petroleum based fuels, which are mainly composed from oil, biogasolines are made from plants such as beets and sugarcane or cellulosic biomass- substances normally referred to as plant waste.

Bioproducts or bio-based products are materials, chemicals and energy derived from renewable biological material.

Biorefining is the process of "building" multiple products from biomass as a feedstock or raw material much like a petroleum refinery that is currently in use.

In industrial paper-making processes, organosolv is a pulping technique that uses an organic solvent to solubilise lignin and hemicellulose. It has been considered in the context of both pulp and paper manufacture and biorefining for subsequent conversion of cellulose to fuel ethanol. The process was invented by Theodor Kleinert in 1968 as an environmentally benign alternative to kraft pulping.

Supercritical hydrolysis is a chemical engineering process in which water in the supercritical state can be employed to achieve a variety of reactions within seconds. To cope with the extremely short times of reaction on an industrial scale, the process should be continuous. This continuity enables the ratio of the amount of water to the other reactants to be less than unity which minimizes the energy needed to heat the water above 374 °C (705 °F), the critical temperature. Application of the process to biomass provides simple sugars in near quantitative yield by supercritical hydrolysis of the constituent polysaccharides. The phenolic polymer components of the biomass, usually exemplified by lignins, are converted into a water-insoluble liquid mixture of low molecular phenols (monomerization).

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a thermal depolymerization process used to convert wet biomass, and other macromolecules, into crude-like oil under moderate temperature and high pressure. The crude-like oil has high energy density with a lower heating value of 33.8-36.9 MJ/kg and 5-20 wt% oxygen and renewable chemicals. The process has also been called hydrous pyrolysis.

Inbicon is a Danish company that produces cellulosic ethanol.

References

  1. ↑ “Cellulosic Sugars: Unlocking Biomass’ Potential”, Nexant, (2012), p.1-2
  2. ↑ Xylose, Material Measurement Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), (2011)
  3. ↑ Glucose, Material Measurement Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), (2011)
  4. ↑ (https://bluebiofuels.com/)
  5. ↑ Renmatix Facilities, Retrieved 23 June 2015]
  6. ↑ “Cellulosic Biofuels Industry Progress Report Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine ”, Advanced Ethanol Council, (2012-2013)
  7. ↑ “BASF invests in Renmatix Archived 2015-07-14 at the Wayback Machine ”, ICIS Green Chemicals, (2012)]
  8. ↑ “ICIS Innovation Award Winners, Renmatix and Virent, Announce Collaboration On Bio-based Packaging Archived 2015-07-14 at the Wayback Machine ”, Retrieved 23 June 2015
  9. ↑ “U.S. Biobased Products, Market Potential and Projections Through 2025”, United States Department of Agriculture, P.15, (2008)
  10. ↑ “McKinsey & Company Releases New Data About Growth in Industrial Biotech Sector at World Congress” Retrieved 23 June 2015
  11. ↑ Third Annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, Toronto, ON, July 11–14, 2006 Retrieved 23 June 2015
  12. ↑ “McKinsey & Company Releases New Data About Growth in Industrial Biotech Sector at World Congress” Retrieved 30 July 2015
  13. ↑ “U.S. Biobased Products, Market Potential and Projections Through 2025”, United States Department of Agriculture, P.15, (2008)
  14. ↑ Renmatix Facilities, Retrieved 23 June 2015]
  15. ↑ “Cellulosic Biofuels Industry Progress Report Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine ”, Advanced Ethanol Council, (2012-2013)
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