Putting Chemistry Into The Biorefinery

Transcription

1 Putting Chemistry Into The Biorefinery Georgia Institute of Technology School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Art J. Ragauskas

2 Research Opportunities: New Industrial Economy David Morris - early 1980s Coined the term "carbohydrate economy" Envisaged shifting society's engine toward renewable, environmentally benign materials from agro/forestry-based materials - Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 Title III: Biomass R&D Act of 2000, established the Biomass Research & Development Board. Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr. Director, National Science Foundation

3 Stabilization of CO 2 concentrations means fundamental change to the global energy system Global Primary Energy (Exajoules) History and Reference Case History Future Global Primary Energy (Exajoules) Stabilization of CO 2 at 550 ppm History Future Preindustrial 280ppm Source: Jae Edmonds Oil Natural Gas Coal Biomass Energy Non-Biomass Renewable Energy Preindustrial 280ppm Oil + CCS Natural Gas + CCS Coal + CCS Nuclear Energy End-use Energy

4 Potential Biomass Resource and Refinery Capacity in 2012: Logging Residues, Crop Residues, Switchgrass Source: Perlack et al., ORNL Data do not include pulp & paper assets in the Southeast

5 Potential Biomass Resource and Refinery Capacity in 2030: Forest Residues (all), Crop Residues, Switchgrass Source: Perlack et al., ORNL Data do not include pulp & paper assets in the Southeast The Southeast and Midwest will be the sources for US biomass

6 Defining a Biobased Economy An economy based on renewable raw materials to produce products and energy in a sustainable manner

7 Decreasing U.S. Petroleum Consumption Fuel (billion annual gallons) Congress: The 30 by 30 goal Replace 30% of gas and diesel consumption with biofuels by 2030 Requires approximately 1B dry tons of biomass for 60B gal using current technology Billion Ton Study there is enough biomass in the US World Ethanol and Biodiesel Annual Ethanol Biodiesel 980 Production (Petroleum 1150 B g/yr) Million Annual Gal Annual Ethanol Production by Country in Brazil US China EU India Canada Columbia Others 32 Decrease consumption by 18% in 14 years Grow production of renewable fuels to 31B gal/year by 2017 Upper limit of corn ethanol is set to 15 billion gal per year (National Corn Growers Association) With capacity being built we will reach this limit within two years Energy Bill H.R.6: We must add cellulosic biofuels in order to meet our national goals

8 Decreasing U.S. Petroleum Consumption Source: Hart Energy Consulting, Government Affairs, 2007

9 Decreasing U.S. Petroleum Consumption Minimum Ethanol Selling Price (cents/gal) Reducing Cost of Cellulosic Ethanol Modeled Ethanol Cost for nth Plant Historical and Projected Cellulosic Ethanol Costs Cost reductions to date Future goal Enzyme Feedstock Conversion In order for biofuels to succeed in the US and world-wide, they must be both costcompetitive and sustainable. Cost-competitive in the blend market by 2012

10 Decreasing U.S. Petroleum Consumption Many new strategic alliances have formed since 2006 in support of accelerating liquid biofuels R&D, especially those derived from cellulose

11 Major DOE Biofuels Project Locations Decreasing U.S. Petroleum Consumption DOE Joint Bioenergy Institute (Berkeley, CA) Novozymes (Davis, CA) Ceres, Inc (Thousand Oaks, CA) Geographic, Feedstock, and Technology Diversity Pacific Ethanol Biochemical (Boardman, OR) Iogen (Shelly, ID) Genencor (Palo Alto, CA) Emery Energy (Salt Lake City, UT) BlueFire Ethanol (Corona, CA) Verenium Corp (San Diego, CA) Lignol Innovations (Commerce City, CO) Cargill Inc (Minneapolis, MN) Abengoa (Hugoton, KS) NewPage (Wisconsin Rapids, WI) POET (Emmetsburg, IA) Iowa State University (Ames, IA) Regents of the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) ICM (St. Joseph, MO) Gas Technology Institute (Des Plaines, IL) DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (Madison, WI) Mascoma (Vonore, TN) Southern Research Institute (Birmingham, AL) DOE Bioenergy Science Center (Oak Ridge, TN) Mascoma (Lebanon, NH) Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) Ecofin, LLC (Washington County, KY) Range Fuels (Soperton, GA) RSE Pulp & Chemical, LLC (Old Town, ME) GE Global Research (Niskayuna, NY) DSM Innovation Center (Parsippany, NJ) Dupont (Wilmington, DE) Research Triangle Institute (Research Triangle Park, NC) Seven Small-Scale Biorefinery Projects ALICO (LaBelle, FL) Six Commercial-Scale Biorefinery Projects Four Improved Enzyme Projects Five Projects for Advanced Organisms Five Thermochemical Biofuels Projects Regional Partnerships Three Bioenergy Centers DOE Joint Solicitation Biomass Projects Thanks: S. Shoemaker

12 ORNL will Lead One of Three DOE Bioenergy Research Centers Funded for $125M over 5 years Awarded June 26 Start in Sept. 07 Interface with Tennessee Biofuels Initiative Two other centers at U Wisconsin LBNL

13 The BESC Team Assembled to Overcome Biomass Recalcitrance Joint Institute for Biological Sciences Alternative Fuels User Facility Oak Ridge National Laboratory University of Georgia University of Tennessee National Renewable Energy Laboratory Georgia Tech Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Dartmouth ArborGen Diversa Mascoma Individuals from U California-Riverside, Cornell, Washington State, U Minnesota, NCSU, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Virginia Tech Complex Carbohydrate Research Center

14 The Fundamental Science of Biomass Recalcitrance is Poorly Understood Recalcitrance: Resistance to breakdown into sugars Sugars Fuel(s) Overcoming recalcitrance is the single coherent overarching theme for the BESC Cellulosic biomass A large-scale, integrated, interdisciplinary approach is needed to overcome this problem Current research efforts are limited in scope BESC will launch a broad and comprehensive attack on a scale well beyond any efforts to date Without advances, a cellulosic biofuels industry is unlikely to emerge Knowledge gained will benefit other biofuels and biofeedstocks

15 BESC will Revolutionize how Biomass is Processed within Five Years

16 BESC Defined Objectives Revolutionize the processing of biomass within 5 years Improve overall sugar/ ethanol yields Simplify operations through consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) Decrease (or eliminate) the need for costly chemical pretreatment Apply a systems biology approach and new higherthroughput pipelines Reduce recalcitrance by targeted modification of plant cell wall composition and structures Develop and understand single microbes or microbial consortia and their enzymes to enable CBP for low-cost cellulose hydrolysis and fermentation Provide a synergistic combination of modified plants and CBP for even more cost-effective biofuel production

17 Three Linked Scientific Focus areas will enable BESC to Understand and Overcome Biomass Recalcitrance

18 BESC Integrates Three Key Science Focus Areas Biomass formation and modification What gene products control cell wall structure, composition, and recalcitrance? How will changes in cell wall structure and composition affect plant productivity, pest resistance, and/or sustainability? Challenge: Identify genes that control biomass production and cell wall synthesis Characterization and modeling What structural and compositional elements contribute to recalcitrance? Can new analytical methods, systems biology data, and computational models enable predictive simulation of lignocellulose formation and deconstruction? Challenge: Understand the complexity of plant cell wall structure and its relationship to recalcitrance Biomass deconstruction and conversion What limits the rate of biomass deconstruction, and how can these limits be overcome by altered biocatalysts? Will the combination of altered cell walls with better conversion offer a breakthrough? Challenge: Improve deconstruction rates and understand how microbes and enzymes attack biomass substrates

19 Related BioMass-BioFuels Activities Ragauskas Team Hydrogen (H 2 ) Gasification Syngas Water gas shift + separation Catalyzed synthesis Methanol (CH 3 ) DME (CH 3 OCH 3 ) FT Diesel (C x H y ) Anaerobic digestion Biogas Purification SNG (CH 4 ) Lignocellulosic biomass Flash pyrolysis Hydrothermal liquefaction Bio oil Hydro treating and refining Biodiesel (C x H y ) Hydrolysis Sugar Fermentation Ethanol (CH 3 CH 2 ) Sugar/starch crops Oil plants >>Extractives<< Milling and hydrolysis Pressing or extraction Plant Oil Esterification Biodiesel (alkyl esters) Bio oil

20 Today s Forest Products Pulp Mill Kraft Pulping-Bleaching Products Lignin Cellulose Hemicellulose Thermal Energy -Lignin - Carbohydrates Greenfield Mill: $1 2 Billion Collects: +650,000 tons of wood/year Generates: +350,000 tons of pulp Paper - Carbohydrates Many new opportunities exist for Forest Biorefineries!

21 Today- Tomorrow s Forest Products BioRefiner Value-Added Chemicals Bark Energy Biofuels Wood Debarking Collection Wood Chipping Proposed Hemicellulose Extraction Stage Wood Chips Wood Extractives Chemical Markets Wood Hemicellulose Sugars Extracted Woodchips Pulping Combustion of Chemical Pulp Waste Energy Pulping Chemicals Bioethanol Fermentation Pulp Bleaching Unbleached Pulp Papermaking Papermaking

22 Early Adoption/Paper Mill Sludge- Municipal Waste O HO O HO O O O HO O HO O O O-Cellulose Ethanol from Cellulosic Waste Glucose Ethanol

23 Biofuels Research - Ongoing Studies Processing Biomass to Bioethanol HO HO O Biomass Biomass Pretreatment Hydrolyzed Biomass Fermentation of Hydrolyzed Biomass Bioethanol + Residue HO HO Loblolly Pine Hybrid Popular Switchgrass Miscanthus giganteus O The efficient processing of lignocellulosics into biofuels is contingent on the characterization of the chemical constituents of plant carbohydrates and lignin and their changes in structure throughout the process. Several key parameters need to be addressed to facilitate practical bioconversion of non-food agricultural/woody biomass into ethanol including: Amounts and degree of cellulose crystallinity Amounts and structure of hemicelluloses, lignin, and low-molecular extractives Inorganic elements

24 Bark for Biofuels/Biochemicals ` Conversion Chemistry Extraction-Characterization Cat. Pyrolysis Chemistry Cat. Liquidification R 2 HO O R 3 R 1

25 Acknowledgments Program Sponsors National Science Foundation NRI USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service DARPA ARO Department of Energy Georgia Research Alliance Georgia TIP3 GA Tech CEO AtlanTICC Alliance Gunnar Nicholson Foundation Chevron DiversaCorp. Fulbright Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. Hercules Incorporated International Paper Company Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd. Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging MeadWestvaco Corp. Bowater, Inc. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Buckman Laboratories International Stora Enso North America Eka Chemicals Inc. Temple-Inland Corp. Georgia-Pacific Corp. Weyerhaeuser Company

26 Thank You!

27 It can be produced with success in labs, but according to Arthur Ragauskas, a biofuels expert at Georgia Tech, "there are still significant challenges" to bringing it to market, namely cost and efficiency. While converting a starch like corn or sugar to ethanol is relatively simple, cellulosic matter poses a greater challenge because it requires "pretreatment" to make the material more reactive to the deconstruction enzymes that turn starch to glucose, which is easily turned into ethanol. make this cost effective. Ragauskas says new technology looks promising, but many experts believe it's unlikely that the fuel will go from zero to 20 billion in 10 years. It took the corn industry more than a decade to get to 1 billion gallons of ethanol capacity.