Integrated Biorefinery for Conversion of Crop Residues into Bio-based Polymers

拟议研究计划的长期目标是开发一种综合生物精炼厂，用于对作物残渣进行生物聚合物材料的有价化处理。该计划的短期目标是：(1)开发一种高效且经济高效的从农作物残渣中生产高纯度纤维素和木质素的分级工艺，(2)生产涂料/塑料/防晒霜用的木质素紫外线吸收剂，以及用于土壤保水应用的吸水聚合物，(3)开发新的酶/细菌菌株，将纤维素一锅转化为果糖，(4)将葡萄糖/果糖转化为2，5-呋喃甲酸(FDCA)，并生产用于包装材料的聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET)的绿色替代品(PEF)，以及(5)论证拟议的集成生物精炼厂用于工业规模(50-100吨/天)生产生物基聚合物的技术经济可行性。 加拿大是世界上最大的农产品生产和出口国之一。根据加拿大统计局的数据，2011年主要谷物和油籽(小麦、油菜籽、玉米、大麦、大豆和燕麦)的产量超过6500万吨。如果按每吨粮食生产1.5吨作物残留物估算，加拿大农业部门每年产生约100公吨作物残留物。作物残渣通常用于牲畜的青贮，堆肥后的肥料，或用于供热或发电的固体燃料。这项建议的目标是采用综合生物精炼方法，更高价值地利用农作物残渣的两个主要成分，即纤维素和木质素，以生产生物聚合物(即木质素基的紫外线吸收、吸水聚合物和用于包装材料的纤维素衍生的PEF)。世界合成聚合物(PE、PP、PVC、PS、PET等)生产情况是巨大的，主要来自石油，达到大约。每年4亿吨，市场价值超过4000亿美元。为了减少合成聚合物生产中的碳足迹，迫切需要开发生物聚合物。因此，利用作物残渣生产高价值生物聚合物将加强加拿大在生物经济方面的领先地位，减少对化石资源的依赖(从而减少温室气体排放)，并为加拿大农业部门创造新的利润来源和就业机会。 该计划将帮助培养16名HQP，包括3名博士生，2名MESC和8名孟加拉学生，1名博士后研究员和2名BESC本科生实习生。HQP将为生物精炼和生物制品开发获得必要的专业知识和技能，例如，木质纤维生物质分级、木质素的化学修饰、生物聚合物的表征/应用、纤维素的生物转化、碳水化合物的催化转化、化学反应器设计、技术经济分析和工艺放大。

The long-term goal of the proposed research program is to develop an integrated biorefinery for valorization of crop residues for bio-based polymer materials. The short-term objectives of this program are to (1) develop an efficient and cost-effective fractionation process for production of high purity cellulose and lignin from crop residues, (2) produce lignin-based UV-absorbers for coatings/plastics/sunscreens applications, and water absorbing polymers for soil water retention application, (3) develop new enzymes/bacterial strains for one-pot conversion of cellulose to fructose, (4) convert glucose/fructose into 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), and produce polyethylene furanoate (PEF) as a green replacement for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for packaging materials, and (5) demonstrate techno-economic feasibility of the proposed integrated biorefinery for production of the bio-based polymers from crop residues at industrial scale (50-100 tonnes/day). Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers and exporters in the world. According to Statistics Canada, over 65 million tonnes of major grains and oilseeds (wheat, canola seeds, corn, barley, soybeans and oats) were produced in 2011. If estimated based 1.5 tonne crop residue per tonne of grain production, the agriculture sector of Canada generates about 100 Mt crop residues annually. Crop residues are conventionally utilized for silage for livestock, fertilizer after composting, or solid fuel for heat or electricity generation. This DG proposal targets at an integrated biorefining approach to higher value utilization of two major components of crop residues, i.e., cellulose and lignin, for the production of bio-based polymers (i.e., lignin-based UV-absorbing, water-absorbing polymers, and cellulose-derived PEF for packaging materials). The world production of synthetic polymers (PE, PP, PVC, PS, PET, etc.) is immense, mainly from petroleum, reaching approx. 400 million tonnes per year with over $400 billion marker value. There is a pressing need for developing bio-based polymers in order to reduce the carbon footprints of the synthetic polymer production. Utilization of crop residues for high-value bio-polymers would thus strengthen Canada's leading position in bioeconomy, reduce its dependency on fossil resources (hence greenhouse gas emission), and create new profit streams and jobs for Canadian agriculture sector. This proposed program will contribute to training of 16 HQP, including 3 PhD students, 2 MESc and 8 MEng students, 1 postdoctoral fellow and 2 BESc undergraduate interns. The HQP will gain necessary expertise and skills for biorefinery and bioproducts development, e.g., lignocellulosic biomass fractionation, chemical modification of lignin, bio-based polymers characterization/applications, bioconversion of cellulose, catalytic conversion of carbohydrates, chemical reactors design, techno-economic analysis and scale-up of a process.