Biorefinery

Dr. C. Zetzl

As the petrol era is facing its end, new resources for base chemicals, polymers and energy production need to be explored. Therefore, the conversion of biomass to high value products such as fine chemicals and biofuels has recently attracted the interest of scientists from academia and industry. Established processes are mainly based on the utilization of starchy substrates (1^st generation biorefinery), which are in direct competition with the food producing agricultural industries, while (often) leaving the main constituent of biomass resources unused. Biomass consists mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin followed by proteins and lipids. The goal of the second generation biorefinery is to integrate all added value streams into one biorefinery concept using lignocellulosic plant residues from different industries. The fractionation of added value streams is exemplarily depicted for the model substrate wheat straw:

Our motivation is to isolate these compounds or compound mixtures with a process cascade, which exclusively utilizes CO₂, water and enzymes and to convert these into platform chemicals like glucose, xylanes and furfural. Currently, the use of lignin, as the second most abundant biopolymer and the main natural source of phenols, is gaining more attention.

These materials can be introduced into a sustainable production of scale for almost all needs in life science, energy and polymer producing technologies. These processes are contained in the term “biorefinery”. In analogy to an oil refinery, the biorefinery uses renewable sources as a feedstock and turns them into different product streams. Nevertheless, in order for this biorefinery to be economically viable, all its product streams should find use and application, exactly like in the oil refinery. Sequential isolation and possible use of the single fractions can be summarized as follows:

Find out about 10 years of lignocellulose biorefinery research at TVT

Summer School:

The TUHH-Institute for Thermal Separation Processes is taking active part in teaching at the annual European Summer School in High Pressure Technology, which has been held since 20 years by Prof. Thomas Gamse from the TU Graz.

Undergraduate / Grammar School:

TUHH Insitute for Thermal Separation Processes offers workshops with regional schools for the education of 2 G Biorefinery topics, namely the production and purification of Bioethanol.