Sustainability assessment of glucose production technologies from highly recalcitrant softwood including scavengers

Abstract

The utilization of abandoned lignocellulosic residues for chemical production has a strong potential to partially substitute chemicals, which are traditionally produced from non-renewable resources. Softwood especially, with its high availability, presents a sustainable resource for the conversion to higher value-added products such as biofuels and bioplastics. In this study, we investigate mature and innovative technologies for the conversion of softwood to the platform chemical sugar from an economic and environmental perspective. We show that the conventional enzymatic hydrolysis has high economic as well as environmental burdens and that the increase of enzyme availability via a carbocation scavenger process is the key solution to overcome them. Furthermore, we present a process design based on concentrated acid hydrolysis, which is both environmentally and economically competitive compared to conventional production from sugarbeet. The low energy and raw material requirements combined with heat integration and moderate capital costs makes this technology attractive for utilization of softwood residues. This proves that lignocellulosic residues have the potential to become an important raw material in the future bioeconomy.

Pilot-scale steam explosion pretreatment with 2-naphthol to overcome high softwood recalcitrance

“…A recent theoretical assessment of glucose production technologies from softwood has shown that the scavenger process at its current stage already has the potential to considerably cut biorefinery operating costs compared to, e.g., a state-of-the art SO 2 pretreatment [ 49 ]. In the overall process cost of a scavenger process, the 2-naphthol additive ranked third after biomass and enzymes.…”

Physical and chemical characteristics of pretreated slash pine sawdust influence its enzymatic hydrolysis

“…Las coníferas han sido reconocidas como materias primas altamente recalcitrantes a la hidrólisis enzimática (Morales et al, 2017). El carácter recalcitrante de los materiales lignocelulósicos es debido a la resistencia de la pared celular, que evolucionó como barrera a agentes externos y de degradación.…”

Second-generation bioethanol from industrial wood waste of South American species

“…Softwoods have been recognized as a highly recalcitrant raw material to EH (Morales et al, 2017). Several studies and reviews in the last years include generically softwoods, mixed softwoods or refer mostly to spruce and fir as a source for bioethanol production (Pan et .…”