Widespread production of biomass-derived fuels and chemicals will require cost-effective processes for breaking down cellulose and hemicellulose into their constituent sugars. Here, we report laboratory-scale production of soluble carbohydrates from corn stover, hardwood, and softwood at high yields (70 to 90%) in a solvent mixture of biomass-derived γ-valerolactone (GVL), water, and dilute acid (0.05 weight percent H2SO4). GVL promotes thermocatalytic saccharification through complete solubilization of the biomass, including the lignin fraction. The carbohydrates can be recovered and concentrated (up to 127 grams per liter) by extraction from GVL into an aqueous phase by addition of NaCl or liquid CO2. This strategy is well suited for catalytic upgrading to furans or fermentative upgrading to ethanol at high titers and near theoretical yield. We estimate through preliminary techno-economic modeling that the overall process could be cost-competitive for ethanol production, with biomass pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis.

In light of the targets set out by the Paris Climate Agreement and the global energy sector's ongoing transition from fossil fuels to renewables, the chemical industry is searching for innovative ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of ammonia. To address this need, research and development is under way around the world to replace the century-old Haber-Bosch process for manufacturing ammonia from N 2 and H 2 , powered by renewable electricity. This involves replacing H 2 obtained from steam-reformed CH 4 to H 2 that is instead obtained from electrolyzed H 2 O. This transition will enable the changeover from the Haber-Bosch production of NH 3 to electrochemical, plasma chemical, thermochemical, and photochemical generation of NH 3 . If ammonia can eventually be produced directly from N 2 and H 2 O powered by just sunlight, at a technologically significant scale, efficiency, and cost, in a ''solar ammonia refinery,'' green ammonia can change the world! Ammonia Background Fritz Haber, a German chemist, Nobel Laureate in chemistry 1918, invented a way to make the nitrogen in air available to plants by converting it, together with hydrogen, into ammonia. Working with Carl Bosch at BASF in Ludwigshafen, Germany, he developed the heterogeneous catalytic Haber-Bosch process, 1-5 which first operated on an industrial scale for the production of ammonia in 1913. For developing this process, Carl Bosch received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1931. Surprisingly, the best catalyst for the production of ammonia, discovered by Alwin Mittasch, was found to have a composition similar to ''Gallivare'' magnetite, a multi-component iron ore from northern Sweden with a composition composed of Fe 3 O 4 , CaO, Al 2 O 3 , MgO, and Cr 2 O 3 component metal oxides.

A new continuous-time MILP model for the short-term scheduling of multipurpose batch plants is presented. The proposed model relies on the state-task network (STN) approach and addresses the general problem of batch scheduling, accounting for resource (utility) constraints, variable batch sizes and processing times, various storage policies (UIS, FIS, NIS, ZW), batch mixing/ splitting, and sequence-dependent changeover times. The key features of the proposed model are the following: (a) a continuous-time representation is used, common for all units; (b) assignment constraints are expressed using binary variables that are defined only for tasks, not for units; (c) start times of tasks are eliminated, so that time-matching constraints are used only for the finish times of tasks; and (d) a new class of valid inequalities that improves the LP relaxation is added to the MILP formulation. Compared to other general continuous time STN formulations, the proposed model is faster. Compared to event-driven formulations, it is more general, as it accounts for resources other than equipment and gives solutions in comparable computational times. The application of the model is illustrated through four example problems.

who inspired us all and shared his valuable experiences in the border of academia and industry and cannot be with us today to see the final result of this joint effort.

Replacing petroleum by biomass can be economically feasible by generating revenue from the three primary biomass constituents.

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We utilize process modeling to assess the energy and economic feasibility of a generic solar refinery which converts carbon dioxide and water into fuels.

Experimental and technoeconomic analysis of a catalytic process for the conversion of whole biomass into jet fuel.