Development of Novel Microwave Biorefinery

预计到2015年，新兴绿色化学品和木质纤维素基材料生产的化学品的全球市场规模将分别达到约700亿加元(年增长5%)和50亿美元(年增长12.5%)。生物精炼将在满足未来对生物制品的需求方面发挥重要作用。然而，基于木质纤维的生物精炼厂必须从原料到最终产品的整个过程进行综合设计和评估。在全面商业化的道路上，面临着许多技术、战略和经济挑战。最重要的是，生物炼油厂仍然需要采用最好的前处理、转化和产品升级技术。加拿大已经提出和/或开发了许多基于硫酸盐纸浆厂、从黑液中回收木质素和淀粉的生物精炼厂。然而，在加拿大，基于微波技术的生物精炼在很大程度上仍未被探索。传统的热化学系统面临着两大挑战：投资成本高和产品质量差，导致产品更新换代耗时长、成本高。

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.