This week, while much of the world descended on New York to welcome the UN opening sessions and debate about climate change \u2014 we headed for ICLE4 \u2014 the International\u00a0Conference\u00a0on Lignocellulosic Ethanol, in Landshut, Germany \u2014 as a way of catching up with the lively cellulosic scene in the EU.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s our report from the front lines.<\/p>\n
The cellulosic scene in the EU is lively and well \u2014 greatly cheered by news of commercial-scale openings by POET-DSM, and Beta Renewables and the impending openings at Abengoa Bioenergy and DuPont.<\/p>\n
This week, the 4th ICLE conference for cellulosic ethanol is taking place in Landshut, Germany \u2014 not far from Munich, and the mood is decidedly upbeat. A surprisingly strong turnout from Latin America might be the cause \u2014 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\u2019s demonstration plant in nearby Straubing.<\/p>\n
Given that the conference focused on cellulosic ethanol \u2014 many of the forestry-based companies like UPM that were focused on gasification technologies and drop-in fuels were understandably absent, but otherwise a who\u2019s who of consortia and technologists were on hand \u2014 Corbion, KU Leuven, Cargill, Process Design Center, Praj, DONG (Inbicon), Borregaard, Terranol, Andritz, De Smet, NexSteppe, LNEG, Vireol, C5 Ligno Technologies, Poyry, Codexis, Maxbiogas, AB Enzymes, Toray and a dizzying array of consortia, universities and government rR&D and regulatory agencies.<\/p>\n
In the EU, the sector is longer on technology than project sites \u2014 generally, there\u2019s focus on the Asian market, the North America and that \u201cground zero\u201d of bioenergy, Brazil.But there are projects that have bubbled along in the EU, don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
We expect that to change in the next month, though. Watch this space for details.<\/p>\n
The feedstock of choice in the EU is generally wheat straw, though there\u2019s corn stover available in pockets. One finds quite a lot of testing with bagasse in the EU labs these days.<\/p>\n
A traditional strength for the EU has been in microorganisms \u2014 whether it is enzymes, yeasts or bacteria for fermentation, one finds a clutch of EU companies crowding each niche. There are the big guns in yeast like DSM, or the upstarts such as Taurus Energy which is making waves with its TransFerm line, and LeSaffre\u2019s Leaf Technologies unit has landed a huge partner in Beta Renewables. In enzymes, the major players such as Novozymes and DuPont (which acquired Danisco a couple of years back) are releasing product almost every year, and it is not just a case of falling costs \u2014 but higher yields and better organism-biomass ratios.<\/p>\n
But companies like US-based Dyadic have major lab operations in the EU and that\u2019s a key partner in enzymes for Abengoa. And Clariant produces all the yeast and enzyme organisms for its partners as an integrated part of the sunliquid cellulosic technology package. That\u2019s been getting a lot of attention in places like Brazil where infrastructure is less suited to trucking enzymes in as a no-brainer.<\/p>\n
The search is on for higher value \u2014 it\u2019s the solution for smaller-scale projects and higher-cost feedstocks: make more from the products. Ethanol value is a given and the yields, while rising, are already to the point where we can expect improvement rather than revolutions.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s review the science. With cellulosic feedstocks you generally have: C6 sugars (think \u201cglucose\u201d), that\u2019s the cellulose; C5 sugars (collectively \u201cpentose\u201d \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
It has been infamously and often stated that \u201cyou can make anything out of lignin, except money\u201d.<\/p>\n
In every cellulosic fuels venture, the C6 sugars, from cellulose, are being fermented to make ethanol. In many of them, the C5s are also being converted \u2014 which requires some well-engineered yeast or bacteria to do, but most companies that need a solution, have one.<\/p>\n
But, consider, for example, xylitol. It\u2019s a 5C sugar that finds use as a diabetic sweetener. So, Praj for one, presenting at ICLE this week \u2014 said that they are looking at xylitol as a potential secondary product.<\/p>\n
But the bigger trend has been looking for value in lignin. Right now, it is generally burned to provide process heat and steam \u2014 and in some cases, to produce green electricity to sell into a grid. The highest value we\u2019ve seen is around $660 in lignin value, per ton of ethanol. That\u2019s from Beta Renewables, which is generating 3.3 MWh from the lignin that comes in with their five tons of biomass that they ultimately converting into one ton of ethanol. That $660 is in Italy, which has sky-high prices for green watts \u2014 in California, the same process produces half that value.<\/p>\n
Which is to say that, right now, the value of lignin \u2014 if you have a green electricity market available \u2014 runs around $140-$275 per ton. That\u2019s if you have excess lignin available. For purposes of comparison, the value of ethanol is in the $630 per ton range. Green chemicals can run double, or triple that. For selected, exotic molecules \u2014 even more.<\/p>\n
So, you get the idea. There\u2019s real upside there. Given that some 40% or more of a given cellulosic feedstock can be lignin. Even if you feel off just 10% or 20% of the lignin with your deploymerization technology, you can generate real dollars \u2014 after all, even a small commercial facility in cellulosic fuel is bringing in 100,000 tons of biomass. That\u2019s 40,000 tons of lignin \u2013 so if you see $40 million in added revenue by upgrading $150 lignin to $1150 chemicals, well that\u2019s the correct math.<\/p>\n
So far, no technical breakthroughs, but the work is on in the lab \u2014 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 \u2013 benzene, toluene, xylene \u2014 lots of value in there.<\/p>\n
Look at the attention that Virent, Gevo and Avantium have generated for paraxylene, which is the missing ingredient in the search for the 100% renewable clear plastic bottle.<\/p>\n
Now \u2014 given the complexity of lignin \u2014 it\u2019s far too early to focus in on a set group of molecules and say: \u201cthis is the target\u201d. We\u2019ll know more down the line. And a lot of fine minds have attacked this problem before.<\/p>\n
The key is, the search is on. One thing to remember, white rot fungi do a very good job of breaking down lignin. Figuring out how they do it, and reassembling that at a higher rate \u2014 well, that\u2019s certainly one good way to go. Point is, nature can do it\u2026slowly. Nature converts biomass to fossil oil, too\u2026slowly. Nature does a lot of things slowly that we would like to hurry up \u2014 and don\u2019t always dial up a solution for.<\/p>\n
But the hunt is on, with purpose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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