Increasing Sugar Yield in Biofuel Manufacturing through Control of Cellulosic Biomass Particle Size

通过控制纤维素生物质颗粒尺寸提高生物燃料制造中的糖产量

• 批准号: 1562671
• 负责人: Meng Zhang
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Kansas State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2020-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1562671&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; Sugar; Yield; Biofuel; Manufacturing

Today's economy and society are highly dependent on liquid fuels for transportation. Currently, more than 90 percent of the liquid transportation fuels used in the U.S. are petroleum-based. It is imperative to develop alternative liquid fuels that are domestically produced and environmentally benign. Biofuels, derived from cellulosic biomass such as agricultural and forestry residues and dedicated energy crops, offer one of the best near- to mid-term alternatives. Size reduction of cellulosic biomass is the key step in the manufacturing of biofuels. Size reduction is an energy intensive process, and particle size dictates the energy consumption in this process. This award supports research to understand the relationship between cellulosic biomass particle size and biofuel yield. Successful completion of this research will build a foundation for future biofuel manufacturing technologies. This research will have a significant impact on the overall cost and energy balance of biofuel manufacturing, greatly benefiting the U.S. economy and energy security, as well as the environment and society, in general. This project will have a positive impact on engineering education. A new course accompanied by hands-on lab sessions will be created to strengthen the undergraduate engineering curricula and engage students in participating projects on renewable energy manufacturing. The research objective is to test three hypotheses to explain inconsistency in the relationship between cellulosic biomass particle size and enzymatic hydrolysis sugar yield. In this research, it is hypothesized that the inconsistences are caused by the use of different sugar yield definitions, particle size ranges, and pretreatment methods. The prevailing biofuel manufacturing technology and the three most widely used cellulosic biomass currently in the industry, wheat straw, corn stover, and switchgrass, will be used in the research. Experimental investigations on both lab and pilot scale biofuel conversion facilities will be conducted to test the hypotheses. Additionally, structural features, morphological changes, and chemical compositions of cellulosic biomass will be characterized by using electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction analysis, UV spectrophotometry, high performance liquid chromatography, IR spectroscopy, Simon's stain, and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. Based on the experimental results, a sugar yield model, incorporating all the significant structural, morphological, and chemical features, will be developed and validated. The outcome of this research will provide insights in the dynamic degradation of sugar compounds during hydrolysis. It will advance the knowledge base needed to make both strategic and operational decisions in biofuel manufacturing.

当今的经济和社会高度依赖于液体燃料的运输。目前，美国使用的液体运输燃料中有90%以上是以石油为基础的。开发国内生产的、对环境无害的替代性液体燃料势在必行。从纤维素生物质（如农业和林业残留物）和专用能源作物中提取的生物燃料是近期到中期的最佳替代方案之一。缩小纤维素生物质的尺寸是制造生物燃料的关键步骤。粒径的减小是一个能源密集型的过程，而粒径决定了这个过程中的能源消耗。该奖项支持研究纤维素生物质颗粒大小和生物燃料产量之间的关系。这项研究的成功完成将为未来的生物燃料制造技术奠定基础。这项研究将对生物燃料制造的总体成本和能源平衡产生重大影响，极大地有利于美国经济和能源安全，以及整体环境和社会。这个项目将对工程教育产生积极的影响。将开设一门附有动手实验的新课程，以加强本科工程课程，并吸引学生参与可再生能源制造项目。本研究的目的是检验三个假设，以解释纤维素生物质颗粒大小与酶解糖产量之间关系的不一致性。在本研究中，假设不一致是由使用不同的糖产量定义，粒度范围和预处理方法引起的。该研究将使用当前流行的生物燃料制造技术和目前工业上使用最广泛的三种纤维素生物质，即小麦秸秆、玉米秸秆和柳枝稷。我们将在实验室和中试规模的生物燃料转化设施进行实验研究，以检验这些假设。此外，将使用电子显微镜、x射线衍射分析、紫外分光光度法、高效液相色谱法、红外光谱法、西蒙染色法和核磁共振技术来表征纤维素生物质的结构特征、形态变化和化学成分。基于实验结果，将开发并验证包含所有重要结构、形态和化学特征的糖产量模型。这项研究的结果将为糖化合物在水解过程中的动态降解提供见解。它将推进在生物燃料制造中制定战略和运营决策所需的知识基础。