Impact of feedstock quality and variation on biochemical and thermochemical conversion

Abstract

The production of biofuels from lignocellulosic feedstock is attracting considerable attention in the United States and globally as a strategy to diversify energy resources, spur regional economic development and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Because of the wide variation in feedstock types, compositions and content of convertible organics, there is a growing need to better understand correlations among feedstock quality attributes and conversion performance. Knowledge of the feedstock impact on conversion is essential to supply quality controlled, uniform and on-spec feedstocks to biorefineries. This review paper informs the development of meaningful feedstock quality specifications for different conversion processes. Discussions are focused on how compositional properties of feedstocks affect various unit operations in biochemical conversion processes, fast pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction. In addition, future perspectives are discussed that focus on the challenges and prospects of addressing compositionally intrinsic inhibitors through feedstock preprocessing at regionally distributed depots. Such preprocessing depots may allow for the commoditization of lignocellulosic feedstock and realization of stable, cost-effective and quality controlled biomass supply systems.

Predictive modeling to de-risk bio-based manufacturing by adapting to variability in lignocellulosic biomass supply

“…This is especially true given the 1) impact of annual and geographic variation on biomass yields and types (Emerson et al, 2014) and 2) process changes, relative to cellulosic ethanol, needed to deploy a slate of products, including hydrocarbons and lignin-derived compounds (Langholtz et al, 2016). Integrating biomass such as energy crops into existing crop rotations and blending these feedstocks with existing wastes and residues available to a bio-refinery will de-risk the logistics of biomass supply (Lamers et al, 2015;Langholtz et al, 2016;Li et al, 2016;Ray et al, 2017;Williams et al, 2016). In contrast to this approach, pioneer bio-refineries in Iowa, Kansas, etc.…”

Biomass-fired combined cooling, heating and power for small scale applications – A review

“…Biomass used for anaerobic digestion is usually waste from agricultural enterprises or manure from animals and/or humans. This type of biomass has usually a high moisture content and features high ash contents [36].…”

“…Another technology for the biochemical conversion of biomass is fermentation, which describes the conversion of biomass firstly to sugars and finally to alcohols, mainly bio-ethanol. Mostly sugar or starch crops are used, however the process can also be applied to lignocellulose biomass, but with less efficiency [36]. Fermentation is usually applied in large-scale factories and is one of the most commonly used processes for the production of high-quality biofuels [37].…”

Scale-up and process integration of sugar production by acidolysis of municipal solid waste/corn stover blends in ionic liquids

“…While improvements in technology for biomass harvest and collection, storage, preprocessing, and handling and transportation will help to meet this goal, reductions in grower payment will be required since it is one of the largest contributors to costs. One promising alternative to reduce the cost is to blend more expensive high-quality feedstocks with lower cost, lower quality feedstocks such as MSW so that the overall quality still meets the required specifications for the biorefinery [6, 13]. Given the seasonal availability of plant-derived feedstocks, and the continual supply and established infrastructure for MSW, it will be advantageous and important to consider use of MSW as an advanced biofuels’ feedstock, especially as a blending agent to help normalize the composition of the biomass inputs to a biorefinery which has a narrow tolerance to variation in biomass composition [13].…”