Cascade processes for integrated bio-refining of agricultural waste in India and Vietnam

在气候变化的背景下，管理不断增加的世界人口对水、能源和粮食的需求是一项关键的全球挑战。已探明和预测的化石燃料储量的大幅增长意味着，如果我们继续依赖这些储量，那么实现巴黎COP 21的全球平均气温相对于工业化前水平上升1.5摄氏度的目标就有风险。从农林废弃物中提取的生物质是一种低碳的交通燃料和有机化学品原料。整合转化过程，使生物燃料、化学品和能源共同生产，最大限度地提高了废弃生物质利用的经济可行性;这种方法类似于目前的炼油厂，同时提供高容量/低价值（燃料和商品化学品）和低容量/高价值（精细/特种化学品）产品。农业废弃物作为低碳燃料和化学品原料的潜力巨大，甚至允许可持续土地管理做法。仅在欧盟，到2030年，16%的道路运输燃料可以从废物中生产，这将节省超过60%的温室气体。在亚洲，稻米是最重要的单一作物，每年产生超过2.5亿吨的废稻米残渣。目前在发展中国家“就地”焚烧这些废物残余物的做法对环境和人类健康产生了严重的有害影响;因此必须改进废物管理。要利用稻米残渣作为运输燃料和有机化学品的可持续原料，就需要改进其预处理和转化工艺。该项目建议开发一种替代的、环境友好的工艺，利用废稻米残渣生产燃料和生物衍生农用化学品，这将通过寻求将丰富的废物资源转化为（1）经济上可行的、可持续的能源，用于运输燃料，从而对可再生能源、气候变化和环境污染产生影响;以及（2）用于生产有机化学品的可持续原料，同时减少来自“现场”燃烧的二氧化碳和大气颗粒物的排放。我们将利用印度ICT孟买（ICTM）最近建立的示范工厂设施，该设施提供具有成本效益的废米渣分离成木质素和纤维素，重点是生物乙醇生产。我们的目标是发展基础科学，从木质素、糖和其他提取成分中提供更广泛的高价值产品，从而使该工艺面向未来，以应对生物乙醇生产的脆弱经济性。我们提出了一个创新和灵活的转换平台，建立在英国合作伙伴目前的专业知识。拥有植物细胞壁解构和同步糖化专业知识的多学科团队（食品研究所; IFR）、绿色提取方法（The VN-UK Institute，University of DaNang）、酶表达、串联生物和化学催化转化技术（阿斯顿）、解聚木质素的生物化学途径（越南国立大学，胡志明市），过程工程与催化（河內科技大学）和光催化水去污染（阿斯顿和越南科学技术院）将应对增值产品生产的挑战，同时确保采用可持续的水资源管理实践。通过对阿斯顿和IFR的伙伴研究机构进行跨学科研究人员培训交流访问，将促进印度和越南研究所的研究能力的提高，为可持续农业废物管理建立一个平台。

Managing the water, energy and food requirements of a constantly-rising world population, in the context of climate change, is a key global challenge. Significant growth in proven and predicted fossil fuel reserves mean that achieving the Paris COP21 target for a 1.5 degree Celsius increase in mean global temperature relative to the pre-industrial level is at risk if we remain dependent upon these reserves. Biomass derived from agricultural and forestry residues is a low carbon feedstock for transportation fuels and organic chemicals. Integrating conversion processes so that biofuels, chemicals and energy are co-produced maximises the economic viability of waste biomass utilisation; an approach analogous to current petroleum refineries that deliver high volume/low value (fuels and commodity chemicals) and low volume/high value (fine/speciality chemicals) products in tandem. The potential for agricultural waste as a feedstock for low carbon fuels and chemicals is vast, even allowing for sustainable land management practices. In the EU alone, 16% of road transport fuel could be produced from waste by 2030 which would deliver green-house gas savings of greater than 60%. In Asia rice is the single most important crop, annually yielding >250 million tonnes of waste rice residues. Current practices of "at-site" burning of these waste residues in developing nations have serious detrimental effects on the environment and human health; improved waste management is therefore essential. To employ rice residues as sustainable feedstocks for transportation fuels and organic chemicals requires improved processes for their pre-treatment and conversion. This project proposes to develop an alternative, environmentally-benign process to utilise waste rice residues for the production of fuels and bio-derived agrochemicals, which will impact on renewable energy, climate change and environmental pollution by seeking to transform a plentiful waste resource into (1) an economically-viable, sustainable energy source for transportation fuels; and (2) a sustainable feedstock for the production of organic chemicals, while mitigating emissions of carbon dioxide and atmospheric particulates from "at-site" burning. We will exploit recently-established demonstrator plant facilities at ICT-Mumbai in India (ICTM) which offer cost-effective waste rice residue fractionation into lignin and cellulose, with a focus on bioethanol production. Our aim is to develop underpinning science to offer a wider range of high-value products from lignin, sugars and other extracted components thereby future-proofing the process to combat the fragile economics of bioethanol production. We propose an innovative and flexible conversion platform building on current expertise of the UK partners. A multidisciplinary team with expertise in plant cell wall deconstruction and simultaneous saccharification (Institute of Food Research; IFR), green extraction methods (The VN-UK Institute, University of DaNang), enzyme expression, tandem bio- and chemo-catalytic conversion technologies (Aston), bio-chemo routes to depolymerising lignin (Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Min City), process engineering and catalysis (Ha Noi University of Science & Technology) and photocatalytic water depollution (Aston and The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology) will tackle the challenge of value-added product production while also ensuring sustainable water management practices are adopted. Enhanced research capacity in the Indian and Vietnamese institutes will be facilitated by interdisciplinary researcher training exchange visits to the partner research institutes at Aston and IFR, building a platform for sustainable agricultural waste management.