Development of Novel Microwave Biorefinery

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The global market size for emerging green chemicals and chemicals produced from lignocellulosic based materials is expected to reach about CAD $70 billion (annual growth of 5 %) and $5 billion (annual growth of 12.5 %), respectively by 2015. Biorefinery will play an important role in fulfilling this future demand for bioproducts. However, a lignocellulosic based biorefinery must be designed and assessed all the way from feedstock to end product in an integrated manner. Numerous technical, strategic and economic challenges are in the way to full-scale commercialization. Most importantly, biorefineries need to be still employed with the best pre-treatment, conversion and product upgrading technologies. There have been a number of biorefineries proposed and/or developed in Canada that are based on Kraft pulp mills, lignin recovery from black liquor, and starch. However, microwave technology based biorefinery is still largely unexplored in Canada. The conventional thermo-chemical system is facing two major challenges: high capital costs and poor product quality leading to long and expensive product upgrading.