Lignin: from lab to commercial reality

Transcription

1 Lignin: from lab to commercial reality Tom Browne Program Manager, Biorefinery World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology July 20, 2015

2 The refinery concept (bio or otherwise) Energy products come from residues and residues come from higher value products: Feed material Identify remaining value Extract value Residue High-value products Heat, power, fuels 2

3 Kraft Pulping 101 The kraft mill looks a lot like a biorefinery So what else can you do with lignin? Wood chips Recovery boiler Pulping Black liquor (lignin) Pulp and paper Heat, power, fuels 3

4 Extraction of lignin from pulp mill black liquor First patented in 1949 by Tomlinson & son Practised at mills in Cornwall ON and elsewhere Why? Offload the recovery boiler and make more pulp Generate new revenue streams 4

5 Tomlinson patents ( ) Liquor from pulping Weak BL Tank MEE To Concentrators and RB H 2 SO 4 H 2 O Acidification Coagulation Filter & press Dryer Lignin CO 2 5

6 Paleologou patents ( ) Liquor from pulping Weak BL Tank MEE To Concentrators and RB H 2 SO 4 H 2 O Oxidation Acidification Coagulation Filter Belt filter Press Spray Flash dryer Lignin O 2 CO 2 The LignoForce system 6

7 From lab to commercial (I) Bench-top work to evaluate liquors from many different Canadian pulp mills Some filtered really well turns out they were oxidising their liquor But Tomlinson said: Do Not Oxidise! Patent succeeded because it was not obvious Financial support: Canadian Forest Service (Natural Resources Canada) Canadian forest industry 7

8 From lab to commercial (II) Disclose the patent proposal to NORAM Canadian engineering and technology company Well known in P&P Initial engineering estimates were reasonable NORAM agreed to license the technology Financial support: NORAM, CFS 8

9 From lab to commercial (III) Move from bench to pilot Scaleup (how NOT to build a full-scale plant) Provide 100 kg samples to potential customers Show mill operators how it works Feedback to R&D: What REALLY needs fixing Financial support: Resolute Thunder Bay: in-kind (pulp mill) CRIBE: operating funds (Ontario government) CFS: pilot equipment, ongoing R&D NORAM 9

10 Lignin Demonstration Plant 10

11 Biomass is local This is the single most important factor in ROCE calculations Local means bio-scale is at most ~1 GW TH Probably closer to 500 MW TH 10X smaller scale than petroleum industry Costs per unit output will be higher Focus on high-value products will be absolutely 11 critical

12 What about the fuel value? Several lignin plants proposed for Scandinavia will use the lignin as a fuel North American context does not allow this Cheap natural gas and shale oil Low or no cost to carbon emissions 12

13 Plywood resin prices (inflation adjusted) 5,000 $ 4,000 $ 3,000 $ 2,000 $ 1,000 $ - $ Sources: SRI;

14 Plywood resin prices vs oil prices (inflation adjusted) 1,500 $ 1955, 1960 y = 8.28x R² = ,250 $ 1,000 $ Here, you can make money with lignin 750 $ $ 0 $ 20 $ 40 $ 60 $ 80 $ 100 $ 120 $ Data for 1955, 1960, 1980 ignored in the regression analysis 14 Sources: SRI;

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16 Commercialisation: a lot of critical issues Solid science This is actually the easy part Quickly move to pilot Government support here is critical Pilots are not economic, but you ll never get a full-scale plant built without a pilot Customers If it s a better buggy whip, it still won t sell if no one wants buggy whips 16

17 Financial support from a wide group Canadian government (NRCan, NSERC) Ontario government (CRIBE, ORF) Alberta government Quebec government Canadian forest products industry Especially Resolute Forest Products, Thunder Bay NORAM 17

18 What s next? Based on all this, West Fraser has made the decision to invest in a commercial-scale plant Financial support: CFS Alberta Government 18

19 Thank you Thomas Browne, ing., Ph.D. Directeur de recherches, Bioraffinage/énergie Research Manager, Biorefinery/energy 570, boul. Saint-Jean, Pointe-Claire (QC) H9R 3J9 Tel Cell Follow us on