Lignocellulosic Biomasses as Bioresources in Central Europe

Description

In a bid to replace fossil resources by renewable raw materials, the utilization of lignocellulosic biomasses as starting materials for bioconversions to value added products was investigated. Flexibility in raw materials is a major characteristic of a phase III biorefinery where a range of different raw materials and processes are utilized. Wheat straw, miscanthus, beech, pine and spruce which were sourced from Europe were used as starting materials. The goal was to have an optimized biomass-to-sugar process with integrated unit operations. Pretreatment (steam explosion), enzymatic hydrolysis as well as filtration are the unit operations that were involved. Moreover, the conditions for steam explosion were optimized for each biomass (temperature, pH). The enzymatic hydrolysis was carried out using the enzyme cocktail from Novozymes (Cellic3®Tec3 HS). In addition, the released sugars and byproducts were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). With a vacuum filtration set-up, the filterability of the biomasses was studied and the mass balances calculated. Furthermore, the effect of pretreatment conditions on filterability and sugar release was investigated. The efficiency of the whole process was determined by the degree of saccharification and the filterability.

Period	14 Nov 2022
Event title	2022 European Summit of Industrial Biotechnology: Esib 2022
Event type	Conference
Location	Graz, AustriaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International