Chemicals and Fuels from Biomass Through Extraction and Catalytic Conversion

加拿大林业产品协会（FPAC）已确定联合生产新的、高价值的生物能源、生物化学品和生物材料是加拿大林业的优先事项。为了开发这样的工艺，以及支持可靠的规模化所需的传质模型、动力学模型和经济评估，拟议的研究计划将分为三个重点领域：FA1)通过水解回收半纤维素，FA2)作为有价值产品使用的萃取物回收，以及FA3)生物质衍生物的化学转化。由于每干吨约60美元的纤维素生物质的能源成本相当于每桶20美元的石油成本，因此，正如几项研究所指出的那样，商业化的经济障碍是生物质转化的高成本。因此，作为FA1的一部分，将使用独特的固定床流动反应器（FBFR）对加拿大主要生物质资源软木进行详细表征，以优化半纤维素水解及其与化学转化的整合。FA1还将优化半纤维素多糖作为强度添加剂在BC北漂针叶硫酸盐浆中的应用。此外，FA2活性将使生物质水解技术适应于从西部红杉中提取有价值的营养品和药物，β -thujaplicin和塑料酸。萃取研究将伴随著色谱纯化技术的发展而发展。FA3将研究两种有前途的平台化学物质途径：氧化来自生物质的热解油和催化加氢生物质多糖。拟议的FA3研究包括对其他生物质成分对这些热化学转化的影响的开创性研究。新型和标准反应器将与气相色谱和液相色谱相结合，以支持所有这些活动。催化剂特性将使用UBC应用催化研究设施内的仪器进行测量。对于每个FA，将通过计算机模拟开发过程模型和技术经济分析，以加速优化，确定商业可行性，并确定具有最大影响的过程改进。最终，该研究项目将为生物精炼动力学和运输现象提供重要的基础见解，以指导应用和促进技术进步，为加拿大林业建立新的收入来源和就业机会，培训急需的HQP，并为农村社区的社会经济健康做出贡献。

The Forestry Products Association of Canada (FPAC) has identified co-production of new, high value bio-energy, bio-chemicals, and bio-materials as a priority for Canadian forestry. To develop such processes, and the mass transfer models, kinetic models, and economic evaluations needed to support reliable scale-up, the proposed research program will be divided into three focus areas: FA1) hemicellulose recovery through hydrolysis, FA2) extractives recovery for use as valuable products, and FA3) chemical conversion of biomass derivatives. Because cellulosic biomass at approximately $60/dry ton is equivalent in energy cost to petroleum at $20/barrel, the economic obstacle to commercialization is the high cost of biomass conversion, as has been pointed out in several studies. Therefore, as part of FA1 a detailed characterization of Canada's primary biomass resource, softwoods, will be performed using a unique fixed bed flowthrough reactor (FBFR) in order to optimize hemicellulose hydrolysis and its integration with chemical conversion. FA1 will also optimize the application of hemicellulose polysaccharides as strength additives in BC's Northern bleached softwood kraft pulp. In addition, FA2 activities will adapt the techniques for biomass hydrolysis to extract valuable nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals, beta-thujaplicin and plicatic acid, from Western red cedar. Extraction studies will be accompanied by development of chromatographic purification technology for beta-thujaplicin and plicatic acid. FA3 will examine two promising routes to platform chemicals: oxidation of pyrolysis oil derived from biomass and catalytic hydrogenation of biomass polysaccharides. Proposed FA3 research includes groundbreaking studies scrutinizing the impact of other biomass components on these thermochemical conversions. Novel and standard reactors will be combined with gas and liquid chromatography to support all of these activities. Catalyst features will be measured using instrumentation within the UBC Applied Catalysis Research facility. For each FA, process models and techno-economic analyses will be developed through computer simulations to accelerate optimization, determine commercial viability, and identify process improvements with the greatest impact. Ultimately, this research program will provide vital fundamental insights into biorefining kinetics and transport phenomena to guide applications and facilitate technology advances, establish new revenue streams and employment opportunities for Canada's forestry industry, train much-needed HQP, and contribute to the socio-economic health of rural communities.