A novel biorefinery integration concept for lignocellulosic biomass

• Published in: Energy conversion and management 2017-10, Vol.149, p.974-987
• Main Authors: Özdenkçi, Karhan, De Blasio, Cataldo, Muddassar, Hassan R., Melin, Kristian, Oinas, Pekka, Koskinen, Jukka, Sarwar, Golam, Järvinen, Mika
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acidification; Biofuels; Biomass; Biorefineries; Black liquor; Conversion; Economic conditions; Emissions control; Fossils; Gasification; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Hydrothermal liquefaction; Integrated biorefinery; Lignin; Lignocellulose; Liquefaction; Natural gas; Oxidation; Partial wet oxidation; Pretreatment; Refining; Rural areas; Sawdust; Straw; Studies; Supercritical water gasification; Supply-chain network; Sustainability; Synthesis gas; Wet oxidation
• ISSN: 0196-8904; 1879-2227
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2017.04.034

[Display omitted] •Wide review is provided on supply chain and biomass conversion processes.•The requirements for sustainable biorefinery are listed.•An enhanced version distributed-centralized network is proposed.•A novel hydrothermal process is proposed for biomass conversion. The concept of an integrated biorefinery has increasing importance regarding sustainability aspects. However, the typical concepts have techno-economic issues: limited replacement in co-processing with fossil sources and high investment costs in integration to a specific plant. These issues have directed the current investigations to supply-chain network systems. On the other hand, these studies have the scope of a specific product and/or a feedstock type. This paper proposes a novel biorefinery concept for lignocellulosic biomass: sectoral integration network and a new hydrothermal process for biomass conversion. The sectoral integration concept has the potential for sustainable production from biomass: pre-treatment at the biomass sites, regional distributed conversion of biomass from various sectors (e.g. black liquor, sawdust, straw) and centralized upgrading/separation of crude biofuels. On the other hand, the conversion processes compose the vital part of such a concept. The new conversion involves partial wet oxidation - or simultaneous dissolution with partial wet oxidation for solid biomass- followed by lignin recovery with acidification and a reactor that can perform either hydrothermal liquefaction or supercritical water gasification. The process can intake both liquid and solid biomass to produce lignin as biomaterial and syngas or bio-oil. The new concept can contribute social development of rural areas by utilizing waste as valuable raw material for the production of multiple products and reduce the net greenhouse gas emissions by replacing fossil-based production.