SOLVEFUELS - Organosolv Biomass Pretreatment for Flexible Fuel Production
Project team: Paul Christakopoulos (project leader), Christos Nitsos, Leonidas Matsakas, Ulrika Rova
Partners: Chalmers; SEKAB, Sveaskog
Duration: 2016-2018
Funded by the Swedish Energy Agency
Development of novel biotechnological processes for ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass is considered as a sustainable way of producing fuels, provide opportunities for new and innovative industries, reduce dependence on fossil fuels and improve security of supply while at the same time reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A major concern with liquid biofuels for the transportation sector is the sustainability of such fuels with respect to actual GHG reduction potential, land-use-change issues and biomass availability. Secondly, cost competiveness with current fossil fuels is a major barrier for deployment of current technologies for production of biofuels. To address these issues, SOLVEFUELS aims to utilize not only the cellulose fraction for ethanol production, which is the main target of this project, but SOLVEFUELS will also evaluate how the hemicellulosic and lignin fractions can be used to create an energy combine in a flexible and integrated concept. SOLVEFUELS will target several steps of the process: biomass pretreatment, enzyme efficiency and fermentation performance, as well as energy-efficient managing of side streams. Systems analysis (LCA, LCC and techno-economical evaluations) will be used to assess performance indicators regarding conversion efficiency, cost reduction and reduced GHG emission potential and to target process optimizing and system integration of all steps from the biomass fractionation and deconstruction to fuel synthesis and recovery.
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