Energy and Fuel Production through a Combination of Thermochemical and Biochemical Conversion of Low Grade Lignocellulosic Feedstocks

粮食安全、气候变化和能源可持续性是21世纪的三大挑战。在不同的可再生能源中，生物能源是可再生一次能源之一，涉及所有三大问题，因为它在土地利用方面与粮食竞争，二氧化碳净排放量低，如果经济、环境和社会影响得到适当管理，可能是可持续的。这项建议旨在开展以可再生资源为基础的能源和燃料及其增值产品开发的基础研究，以促进向生物经济的快速过渡。这项有针对性的研究旨在开发和评估新的或改进的技术，以克服与加拿大特定范围的低品位燃料转换相关的技术障碍。这些燃料的范围从木质生物质到农业和城市废物。目前存在各种挑战，这些挑战限制了这些类型燃料转换过程的经济可行性和操作可靠性。总体而言，这些原料在生产燃料(乙醇、合成气、精制生物质)和化学品方面具有巨大潜力。提出了三个次级项目，每个次级项目都可直接或间接有助于提高商业化效率和减少温室气体排放。这些是(I)开发从低品位原料生产生物炭的连续HTC工艺，并对各种应用的产品进行表征；(Ii)研究提高CaO吸附剂在生物炭气化过程中循环捕获二氧化碳的性能；以及(Iii)研究改善合成气的传质以通过发酵生产生物乙醇的方法。这项提案将这三个次级项目联系起来，质疑几个悬而未决的问题：我们能否从具有类似煤炭性质的低质量木质纤维素生物质生产固体燃料，特别是低碱金属、更高的HHV和可磨性？如果是这样的话，我们能否在此调查的基础上开发一个可扩展的连续流程？这种产品性能改善背后的科学原理是什么？该产品是否有助于提高CaO吸着剂在气化过程中捕获二氧化碳的反应活性？能否加强合成气在液体溶液中的传质，通过发酵生产生物乙醇？通过上述项目创新和协同地将设计与工艺工程相结合，可望产生可持续的生物燃料和增值产品。由此产生的生物炭可以在性价比的基础上替代化石资源，并增加对生态友好的好处。这意味着通过使用生物产品将极大地减少温室气体排放。在生物燃料和产品的开发和应用中使用水热、化学循环气化和合成气发酵技术将广泛地推动对石油的依赖和可持续经济。NSERC-Discovery赠款计划的重要目标之一是提供基础知识，这些基础知识将在未来十年内影响科学界寻求创新。这项研究的成果将创造新的基础知识，以刺激更多的研究。我们的愿景是教育未来的学生推动新兴的绿色技术创新。这项研究将由博士、硕士和本科生HQP进行，他们将获得直接适用于工业工作或继续研究的宝贵培训。因此，这一提议是科学发现的基石，这些发现将提供关键的知识，以促进生物炭生产中各种应用的科学，并通过生化处理浓缩合成气以生产生物乙醇。

Food security, climate change and energy sustainability are the three major challenges in the 21st century. Among different renewable energy sources, bioenergy is one of the renewable primary energy sources, touching all three major issues due to its competition with food on land use, low net CO2 emissions and potentially sustainable if the economical, environmental and social impacts are properly managed. This proposal targets to carry-out fundamental research on development of renewable resource-based energy and fuel and their value-added product, to facilitate rapid transition to a biobased economy. The targeted research looks to develop and evaluate new or improved technologies to overcome technical hurdles associated with the conversion of Canada’s particular range of low grade fuels. These fuels range from woody biomass to agricultural and municipal wastes. Various challenges presently exist, which limit the economic viability and operational reliability of conversion processes for these types of fuels. Collectively these feedstocks have tremendous potential for the production of fuels (ethanol, syngas, torrefied biomass) and chemicals. Three sub-projects are proposed, each of which can contribute directly or indirectly to greater efficiency towards commercialization and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. These are (i) Development of a continuous HTC process to produce biochar from low grade feedstocks and characterize the products for various applications; (ii) Study the enhancement of CaO sorbents performance for cyclic CO2 capture during gasification of biochar; and (iii) Investigate the means to improve mass transfer of syngas to produce bioethanol through fermentation. This proposal relates these three sub-projects in querying several unanswered questions: Can we produce solids fuels from low quality lignocellulose biomass that will have similar properties of coal specially low alkali metal, higher HHV and grindability? If so, can we develop an scalable continuous process based on this investigation? What is the scientific principle underlying such improved behaviour of the product? Will that product help in increasing the reactivity of CaO sorbent that captures CO2 within the gasification process itself? Can we enhance the mass transfer of syngas in liquid solution to produce bioethanol through fermentation? The innovative and synergistic integration of design with process engineering through above projects are expected to result in sustainable biofuels and value added products. The resulting biochar can substitute fossil resources on cost-performance basis with the added benefit of eco-friendliness. This means a tremendous reduction in greenhouse gas emission through use of bioproduct.The use of hydrothermal, chemical looping gasification, and syngas fermatation techniques in the development and application of biofuels and products would broadly propel the reduced dependency on petroleum and a sustainable economy. One of the important goals of the NSERC-Discovery grant program is to deliver fundamental knowledge that will impact scientific community in a quest for innovations, for a decade to come. The out-come of this research will create new fundamental knowledge to stimulate additional research. The vision is to educate future students in driving-forward the emerging green technology innovation. The research will be carried out by doctoral, Master’s and undergraduate HQP who will gain valuable training directly applicable to work in industry or continued research. Therefore, this proposal is a cornerstone of scientific discoveries that will provide knowledge critical to advance the science in biochar production for various applications, and H2 enrich syngas for bioethanol through biochemical processing.