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Biorefining Introduction, Opportunities and Challenges Robert Bevan European Innovation Manager How biorefineries and green products will make their mark Slide 2 What are Biorefineries? Biorefineries are facilities that convert biomass feedstocks to bio-based energy, fuels, materials and chemicals Biomass Feedstock Conversion Technologies Product Stream Fuels: e.g. biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas Oil Crops: e.g. rapeseed, soybean Lignocellulosic Biomass: e.g. forestry & agricultural wastes Industrial wastes: brewers spent grain, potato pealing's etc Sugar/Starch Crops: e.g. sugar cane / corn Energy: e.g. heat, electricity Chemicals: e.g. bulk, intermediate, final Materials: e.g. polymers Thermal processes: e.g. pyrolysis, gasification Chemical processes: e.g. classical catalysis Biotransformation: e.g. fermentation, enzymatic catalysis Slide 3 Brewers Spent Grain Fermentation Oils / Syn-Gas Existing Products Sugars Classical Chemistry Bio-Based Products Gasification / Pyrolysis Chemo- / Bio-Tech Slide 4 Why are biorefineries important? Growing demand for energy, fuel, materials and chemicals (growing market) Finite availability of fossil fuel resources (continued price rises) Overdependence of many countries on imported resources (national security) Reality of climate change and need to reduce greenhouse gases (societal demand for eco-production) Competitiveness within the global economy Need to stimulate growth within rural economies Slide 5 First Generation Biorefineries Target production of a single product stream from the biomass feedstock A number of first generation biorefineries exist today: Rapeseed oil to biodiesel Sugar cane to bioethanol Corn starch to polylactic acid Gasification of biomass to syngas followed by chemo- / bio- transformation to bioethanol (INEOS) Slide 6 Limitations of First Generation Biorefineries Generate high volumes of by-products that have limited commercial value (e.g. animal feed, energy recovery) Poor competitiveness compared to optimised petrochemical equivalents that derived multiple product streams and utilise ~100% of feedstocks Require feedstock crops rich in the target sugar / starch / oil fraction, typically in competition with food (cereal, oilseed) First generation biorefineries are largely being driven through legislative targets and favourable taxation for biofuels Slide 7 Second Generation Biorefineries Multiple product streams from sustainable biomass feedstocks similar to petroleum refineries Lignocellulose based biorefineries Slide 8 LIGNOCELLULOSE CELLULOSE HEMICELLULOSE LIGNIN Slide 9 LIGNOCELLULOSE BIOMASS CELLULOSE HEMICELLULOSE LIGNIN DIRECT EXTRACTABLES C6 SUGARS C5 SUGARS OLIGOMERS LIGNIN MONOMERS LIGNIN MACROMOLECULES BULK EXTRACTIVES FINE EXTRACTIVES Fuels Platform & Intermediate Chemicals Polymers Functional food & feeds Medicinal / pharma Aromatic platform chemicals (BTX / vanillin) Bio-resins Functional additives Organic / fatty acids Resins Essential oils Phytosterols Slide 10 Advantages of Second Generation Biorefineries Complete valorisation of feedstocks, thereby: enabling optimal use of available resources generating highest value return Integration of multiple processes leading to competitiveness in line with petrochemical refineries Enable use of more sustainable feedstocks (agricultural, forestry & industrial wastes) Viability at small to medium scale: Flexible configuration (niche markets) Rural development capitalising on regional diversity Slide 11 Brewers Spent Grain Hemi- cellulsoe to functional food ingredients Lignin to adhesives & additives Cellulose to biopolymer Slide 12 Key limitations / Research Challenges (1) Cost effective pre-treatment processes enabling recovery of all three lignocellulose fractions in a form suitable for subsequent downstream processing Methodologies for the valorisation of hemicellulose: Hemicellulases for controlled hydrolysis to building block sugars Engineering of microorganisms enabling fermentation of C5 sugars Methodologies for the controlled and selective depolymerisation and transformation of lignin to macromolecular and aromatic platform chemical product streams Slide 13 Key limitations / Research Challenges (2) Demonstration of potential for scale-up and integration of new and emerging technologies within existing and future biorefineries End-user knowledge for use of the resulting bio-based chemicals and materials Petrochemical: Simple-reduced platform chemicals Established processes for building up complexity Strong end-user knowledge base for use Bio-Based: Complex multifunction - oxidised platform chemicals Emerging non-optimised transformation processes Limited end-user knowledge base for use vs Slide 14 Potential Global Market By 2020 Slide 15 Case Study 1 - MicroGrass Microwave plasma pre-treatment process for the rapid breakdown of lignocellulose to sugars for fermentation of ethanol Objectives: Increased sugar yield = >90% (SOA =