Cellulosics and the EU: Chasing Higher Rates, Yields, and More Value from Lignin

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... The cellulosic scene in the EU is lively and well — greatly cheered by news of commercial-scale openings by POET-DSM, and Beta Renewables and the impending openings at Abengoa Bioenergy and DuPont.
This week, the 4th ICLE conference for cellulosic ethanol is taking place in Landshut, Germany — not far from Munich, and the mood is decidedly upbeat. A surprisingly strong turnout from Latin America might be the cause — delegates were on hand from Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. Many of the conference attendees managed to sneak in a plant tour at Clariant’s demonstration plant in nearby Straubing.
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But there are projects that have bubbled along in the EU, don’t kid yourself, many of them backed by grants from regional authorities of the EU itself. Lots of pilots and some demonstrations afoot. The one large commercial-scale cellulosic project on the books for the time present is the Beta Renewables project in Crescentino, Italy.
We expect that to change in the next month, though.
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The feedstock of choice in the EU is generally wheat straw, though there’s corn stover available in pockets. One finds quite a lot of testing with bagasse in the EU labs these days.
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Let’s review the science. With cellulosic feedstocks you generally have: C6 sugars (think “glucose”), that’s the cellulose; C5 sugars (collectively “pentose” — but they come in a variety pack including arabinose, xylose and galactose); and the lignin, a complex set of molecules that give rigidity to plants.
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So far, no technical breakthroughs, but the work is on in the lab — with a goal of deploymerizing the lignin, which is to say, reducing a complex set of molecules to a smaller and simpler set that can be purposed for fuels or chemicals. For example, the BTX set of aromatic molecules – benzene, toluene, xylene — lots of value in there. READ MORE