Progress on Cellulosic Ethanol

Dario Giordano – Delhi – 7-8 March 2018

Cellulosic Ethanol….what the industry learned

Feed handling

Biomass pretreatment/cooking/preparation

Enzymatic Hydrolysis

Fermentation

Ethanol recovery

Lignin separation

…each step….a different challenge.....

Yeast

Enzymes

pulp hydrolizate beer ethanol

lignin

Propagation

Biomass

Handling

Pretreatment

CookingHydrolisis Fermentation

Separation

Recovery

Feed Handling

The corn stover arriving at POET’s cellulosic facility had as much as three or four times more sand and gravel mixed in than engineers had anticipated, and that grit wreaked havoc on pumps, valves and other equipment.“We have made literally hundreds of small process changes,” including a thorough washing of the corn stover once it comes out of the bale, Broinsays…. JEFF BROIN - SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN May 2016

Uma série de ajustes tecnológicos vem sendo feita desde que a fábrica deu a partida. Entre eles, a redução do nível de impurezas minerais que eram trazidas do campo juntamente com a matéria-prima (palha), que caiu de 8%, no início do projeto, para atuais 2%. O excesso de "areia" que entrava na fábrica foi um problema sério no passado, à medida que danificava as estruturas metálicas da usina, tais como válvulas,

bombas e tubulações.

Allan Hiltner – VP Granbio - PORTAL CANAONLINE April 2016

A number of technological adjustments have been made since the factory started. Among them, the reduction of the level of mineral impurities that were brought from the field together with the raw material (straw), which fell from 8% at the beginning of the project to the current 2%. Excessive "sand" entering the plant was a serious problem in the past, as it damaged the steel structures of the plant, such as valves, pumps and pipes.

And there’s a cost in obtaining “good clean biomass”, too. Nothing that comes off an agricultural field is going to come in without rocks and dirt, so another decision is how much you wash, and how you do it. ……. We finally concluded that it was better to add a new intensive washing step, which we are implementing right now in CrescentinoGUIDO GHISOLFI – BIOFUEL DIGEST – Sept 2014

Feed Handling

• Section is feedstock dependent (bulk fresh

biomass different from baled).

• Preparation and cleaning have to consider

the kind of biomass and take care of

debris, stones and other non biomass

arriving with the biomass.

• Cleaning is key to prevent mechanical

issues in the further process steps

(where rotating equipment are located).

• Cleaning has to be “invented” by the

pioneers as a new design is required and

operational experience of processing large

quantity of baled material does not exist.

Biomass Pretreatment

The pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for biomass-to-biofuel conversion processes is an important step in increasing ethanol production for biofuels.

Pretreatment is required to break down the lignin structure and disrupt the crystalline structure of cellulose so that the acids or enzymes can easily access and hydrolyze the cellulose.

Pre-treatment can be the most expensive process in converting biomass to fuel, but there is great potential for improving the efficiency and lowering costs through further research and development.

…let us talk about what we cannotlearn in a book, but we can learn in industrial plants!!!!

Biomass Pretreatment

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Nov. 2, 2017) – POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels has achieved a major breakthrough in cellulosic biofuels production at its Project LIBERTY plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The company has solved the critical challenge in pretreatment, overcoming what has been the No. 1 hurdle to commercialization for producers around the world. Project LIBERTY is now running pretreatment at 80 percent uptime.

Pretreatment is the first stage in cellulosic biofuels production, where the feedstock (corn cobs, leaves, husk) is processed so that enzymes and yeast can access the cellulosic sugars and ferment them into biofuel. POET-DSM and other producers have identified this stage in the past as the major chokepoint in commercial production.

With a newly installed pretreatment system, designed by POET engineers, POET-DSM is now able to direct its attention to fine-tuning downstream processes ……

Crescentino plant in Italy, Raizen plant in Brasil and the POET/DSM in Iowa, all havebeen producing ethanol but all had to overcome issues with the pretreatment …….

….What are the key learnings……

Biomass Pretreatment

….What are the key learnings……

• Keep it simple…. complex configurations and series of multiple screws are failing…..

• Biomasses such as straws and stover are more difficult to dewater and to convey… and scale up effect is almost impossible to predict…

• Some of the steps will require a dedicated innovative design….engineers have to be prepared to identify «fit for use» solutions…

• Few standard pulp equipment can be used in some steps but they have to be properly selected based on running plant experience, otherwise they will fail….

IF YOU ARE BUILDING A NEW CELLULOSIC ETHANOL PLANT TRUST THE ONE THAT HAVE ALREADY EXPERIENCED THE SCALE UP AT INDUSTRIAL SCALE...THIS IS THE ONLY PRAGMATIC WAY TO REDUCE YOUR INDUSTRIAL RISK

Enzymatic Hydrolysis

From Novozymes Cellic® Application Sheet

A multi-step heterogeneous reaction that is the key/most complex step to converts lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars

Enzymatic hydrolysis offers the potential for higher yields, higher selectivity, lower energy costs and milder operating conditions than chemical processes

Substrate-related effects and enzyme-related effects and their interactions have to be considered.

Improvement achieved by the new generation of enzymes are nowproven at industrial scale,

Dose reduction is the way to reduce enzymes cost impact on ethanol production

Enzymatic Hydrolysis

Sugar Source

Enzymes Enzymes Enzymes

Biomass HydrolizateHydrolisis Hydrolisis Hydrolisis

ON SITE

PRODUCTION

ON SITE

PRODUCTION

Which one is the best ?…not clear and depending from the location…Today the 6 industrial plants have all started buying enzymes and only one(POET/DSM) announched that is now implementing the onsite production….

Enzymatic Hydrolsis

Sugar Source

Enzymes Enzymes Enzymes

Biomass HydrolizateHydrolisis Hydrolisis Hydrolisis

ON SITE

PRODUCTION

ON SITE

PRODUCTION

RISK/COMPLEXITY

INVESTMENT

321

PRODUCTION COSTS

Fermentation

In biomass deconstruction, a trade-off exists between the key objective to release all fermentable sugars at minimal process costs and the need to minimize generation and release of compounds that compromise yeast performance.

Hydrolysates of lignocellulosic materials contain hexose (C6) and pentose (C5) sugars. S. cerevisiae is able to produce high ethanol yields from hexose sugars but lacks the ability to ferment pentose sugars. Today are available at industrial level engineered yeast that can successfully co-ferment C5 and C6 sugars.

Work is progressing to improve performances of the yeast in term of kinetics, tolerance and capability to ferment arabinose.

Fermentation - update about state of the art technology

Courtesy of

Ethanol Yield at 48 h g/g (Glu+Xyl) engaged

CelluX1

CelluX2

CelluX3

CelluX4

Pitching at 0.5g DY/kg of hydrolysate pH 5.2, Temperature = 32°C

Courtesy of

CelluX 4

CelluX + Ara

Introduction of thearabinose pathway

+ Engineered evolution

Ethanol

Arabinosephase

Glucosephase

Xylosephase

Time course

CelluX 4

CelluX + Ara

CelluX 4

CelluX + Ara

Next generation of dry yeast will improve performances and will have bettertolerance to the cellulosic biomass environment and additional ethanol yieldthanks to the presence of an arabinose fermentation pathway.

Fermentation - update about state of the art technology

Localization and integration

Yeast

Enzymes

pulp hydrolizate beer ethanol

lignin

Propagation

Biomass

Handling

Pretreatment

CookingHydrolisis Fermentation

Separation

Recovery

2G process

Biomass Supply Chain

Lignin Valorization

Waste Water management and re-use

CONCLUSION

Technology made terrific step ahead and is ready to deploy industrial project. Debugging of first industrial plant successfully completed in multiple cases.

Projects need to be properly developed including analysis of all aspects (biomass, lignin, water management, technology selection, EPC contractors). Geography, size, partners are the basis for the analysis.

Stability in the industry have to be created with clear and long term mandates and regulations , including specific measure for non compliance

Transport decarbonization is a must in the fight to Climate Change ….

We have the capabilities and the TECHNOLOGY ready for achieving good results….

We need to stop living on this planet as if we had another one to go.