SBIR Phase I: Economic Feasibility of ABFX Process

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将展示一个更有效和经济的过程，从木质纤维素生物质中提取化学和能源资源。现有的木质纤维素预处理技术使用多种化学品、热和机械能中的任一种来将水解不良的木质素与纤维素和半纤维素分离，以用于酶促水解成糖，并将糖发酵成醇，或在厌氧消化的情况下发酵成生物气。 化学品的使用或在高温高压下的操作决定了预处理的成本。本研究将研究一种在低温和低压下预处理木质纤维素生物质而不使用化学品的方法。该过程以非常低的能量输入操作，并且可以由废热驱动。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是采用一种经济的方法，从生物质中有效提取能源和化学资源。预处理过程将用于从木质纤维素生物质生产液体和气体燃料。该过程将用于通过增加生物质转化为可再生能源的百分比来减少生物质加工的废物残留物。潜在的市场包括从能源作物或作物残渣生产液体和气体燃料的农业企业，如生物炼油厂、配有厌氧消化器的农场、堆肥设施、市政和工业固体废物设施、封闭式动物饲养场以及用于消费前和消费后固体废物处理的生物炼油厂。预计这一过程将降低生物能源生产的成本，从而改善其使用，同时减少温室气体排放。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate a more effective and economical process for extracting the chemical and energy resources from lignocellulosic biomass. Existing lignocellulosic pretreatment technologies use any of a variety of chemicals, heat, and mechanical energy to separate the poorly hydrolyzed lignin from the cellulose, and hemicellulose for enzymatic hydrolysis to sugars, and fermentation of sugars to alcohol, or in the case of anaerobic digestion to biogas. The use of chemicals, or operation at high temperatures and pressures dictate the cost of pretreatment. This research will investigate a process that pretreats lignocellulosic biomass at low temperature and pressure without the use of chemicals. The process operates with very low energy inputs and may be driven by waste heat. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be the adoption of an economical process for the efficient extraction of energy and chemical resources from biomass. The pretreatment process will be used for the production of liquid and gaseous fuels from lignocellulosic biomass. The process will be used to reduce waste residuals from biomass processing by increasing the percentage of the biomass converted to renewable energy. Potential markets include agricultural enterprises that produce liquid and gas fuels from energy crops or crop residues, such as bio-refineries, farms with anaerobic digesters, composting facilities, municipal and industrial solid waste facilities, confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and bio-refineries for pre and post consumer solid waste processing. The process is expected to lower the cost of bioenergy production and thereby improve its use while reducing GHG emissions.