Catalysis of Lignocellulosic Sugars Process Strategy

Process Strategy Summary

Objective: Optimize lignocellulosic sugar streams as cost-effective feedstocks

Lead: Virent Energy Systems (Andrew Held)

Members: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Catchlight Energy, Iowa State University (ISU), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Pall, and Washington State University (WSU)

The National Advanced Biofuels Consortium's catalysis of lignocellulosic sugars process strategy optimizes using complex lignocellulosic sugar streams as cost-effective feedstocks for Virent Energy Systems' (Virent) conversion process, a leading technology in the field of catalytic processing of biomass-derived sugars.

Technology Background

Virent's patented technology utilizes a variety of plant sugars and converts them to drop-in gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels and fuel components. The technology has been demonstrated in pilot-scale runs using simple sugar streams from beets, corn syrup, and cane juice. Virent has also demonstrated conversion of cellulosic and mixed sugar streams in lab-scale runs, but these sugar streams are not yet economical and the fuels produced would not be cost-competitive.

The BioForming technology combines Virent's proprietary aqueous phase reforming technology with catalytic steps similar to petroleum refining. Virent's technology has four main process steps:

Pretreatment/fractionation
Hydrogenation
Aqueous phase reforming [done under moderate temperatures and pressures (ca. 175°–300°C and 150–1,300 psi)]
Acid catalyzed dehydrations/condensations

The following schematic illustrates the catalysis of lignocellulosic sugars.

$A process schematic that shows the stages of catalytic conversion of sugars. Lignocellulosic materials, soluble sugars, or starches undergo pretreatment and fractionation. This process produces lignin, which is used for process heat, and polysaccharides, C5 and C6 sugars, furans, phenolics, and acids, which go through hydrogenolysis or hydrogenation. The sugar alcohols from hydrogenation and the C2 through C6 oxygenates from hydrogenolysis then go to Aqueous Phase Reforming. Aqueous Phase Reforming products follow one of three paths to finished fuels. The products can undergo dehydration, alkene oligomerization, and alkene saturation to produce diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, or gasoline. The products can undergo base catalyzed condensation and HDO processing to produce kerosene, jet fuel, or gasoline. Or the products can undergo ZSM-5 processing to produce gasoline, kerosene, or jet fuel.$

Catalysis of lignocellulosic sugars

Research Approach

The catalysis of lignocellulosic sugars process strategy will:

Investigate deconstruction strategies for releasing sugars from biomass with a focus on producing complex sugar streams that can be readily upgraded and converted to infrastructure-compatible liquid hydrocarbons using Virent's BioForming platform technology
Perform catalyst characterization and deactivation studies to more fully understand deactivation mechanisms
Conduct preliminary process and engineering design studies with associated life cycle assessment for the conversion of biomass to hydrocarbon products
Determine the optimal hydrocarbon product specification and its associated value as a refinery feedstock, blendstock, or finished fuel product.

Team Member Roles

The team members will take on the following roles:

Catchlight Energy and ISU—provide loblolly pine and corn stover biomass, respectively
NREL and WSU with Virent—optimize pretreatment and saccharification
Pall Corporation—investigate separations technologies
PNNL with Virent—study catalysts
BP and Tesoro—provide refinery integration
NREL and Virent—study process economics
NREL and ANL—perform life cycle assessment.

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