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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FALCON (Fuel and chemicals from lignin through enzymatic and chemical conversion)

Teaser

Summary

FALCON aims to convert the lignin waste stream from lignocellulose-based bioethanol plants to a crude oil, which can be used directly as a low-sulphur marine fuel (value chain 1) or, alternatively, as a renewable feedstock for aromatic fuel additives (value chain 2) and chemical building blocks (value chain 3). These three new value chains can be readily linked to existing second generation (2G) biofuel plants or plants producing other bioproducts and thus contribute to their viability. In addition, the valorization of the lignin-rich waste stream will support the creation of the â€˜zero-waste biorefineryâ€™ concept.
Lignin bio-oils are suited to be used as fuel additives for heavy-duty diesel engines to reduce soot emissions. Therefore, the new technology/process developed in FALCON can be directly integrated in this existing value chain. In this project, the objective is to mature over a period of four years from bench scale to pilot scale the production of low-sulphur heavy fuel oil from lignin by including the use of enzymes.
However, FALCON aims to go beyond the initial bulk product as the phenolic nature of the lignin crude oil can also be used as a green chemical intermediate for aromatic bulk chemicals and resins. Therefore, this project will generate at least three value chains from the lignin waste stream: shipping fuels, fuel additives and chemical building blocks.
Currently, lignin bio-oil is obtained by pyrolysis, which is a high-energy demanding process. Our objective is to replace the thermo-chemical transformation to obtain bio-oil with a sustainable down-stream process, which will need to be validated by means of a Life Cycle Assessment. As such, the project aims to bring more value to the current biofuel biorefinery processes, by valorizing a by-product into 3 value chains, ensuring easy implementation of the innovative new FALCON process.
FALCON has brought together a multidisciplinary consortium of biologists, biochemists, chemists, and chemical, mechanical and process engineers, to jointly work in the FALCON project. To realize the specific goals we have defined six objectives for the project:
1. Process optimization of lignin production and purification
2. Production of solvent tolerant laccases that generate oxidized lignin, resulting in a liquid lignin fraction with smaller lignin-fragments (lignin oil)
3. Development of a separation process that extracts the low-sulphur lignin-derived heavy fuel oil from the aqueous lignin waste stream for further processing
4. Testing, standardization and implementation of the low-sulphur lignin-derived heavy fuel oil as a shipping fuel
5. Conversion of the low-sulphur lignin-derived heavy fuel oil to fuel additives and mono-aromatic building blocks for the chemical industry
6. Bioconversion of the extracted aromatic compounds from objective 4 to value-added products

Work performed

The first 18 months of the project focused on identification of relevant enzymes as well as design of the processes that we want to use for the three value chains.
The main results achieved so far are:
- An extensive mining of fungal and bacterial genomes has resulted in a large set of candidate laccases, which were grouped based on phylogeny. 40 laccases have been produced and are currently being tested for their suitability for our process.
- Promising solvent tolerance of selected laccases have been demonstrated.
- The production of selected newly developed laccases has been upscaled and prepared for industrial scale production.
- The treatment of the lignin waste stream and its influence on the use of it as a substrate in our process has been studied resulting in the identification of several parameters affecting this, as well as initial optimizations that will benefit the overall process.
- The successful impact on the molecular weight distribution of lignin has been demonstrated with enzymatic treatment in alkaline conditions, using newly developed laccases, without and with mediators. In addition, membrane fractionation has been shown to be an industrial viable alternative for collecting different lignin molecular size fractions thus produced. The process is now in progress of upscaling to a pilot-scale.
- Lignin Derived Fuel Oil properties have been determined by collection of specifications of marine fuel. These properties will be checked in the samples generated in the project.
- Candidate lignin-based fuel additives have been identified and processes to generate them are currently being developed.
- Acid treatment of partially depolymerized lignin efficiently results in further depolymerization.
- Genes of several microbial pathways for conversion of lignin-derived aromatics to aromatic building blocks have been identified and the corresponding enzymes are currently being characterized.
- Techno-economic base case scenarios, including environmental aspects, have been determined to enable comparison of the newly developed process of FALCON with existing processes.
Overall the project is on track and main choices will be made in the coming months to select the enzymes, conditions and approach for the process to be developed.

Final results

FALCON will generate three new bio-based value chains valorizing the lignin sludge originating from 2G bioethanol or other bioproduct plants. This industrial waste stream is expected to grow significantly in the coming years due to the increase in 2G bioethanol production plants, amongst others, resulting in an increasing impact for our process. IEA predicts that global 2G ethanol production will be roughly 200 Mt (or 5 EJ) by 2050. As the size of the lignin waste stream is more or less equivalent to the ethanol output in 2G plants, the projected lignin availability by 2050 will be close to the ethanol figure. The three value chains differ in their development phase and time needed to go to market. The first two, shipping fuel and fuel additives are close to market readiness, and mainly need optimization of process parameters and scale up of the production process to make those economically viable. The third, chemical building blocks for aromatic bulk chemicals, resins and higher value end-products, is meant for proof of principle stage and requires more development. These three value chains could in fact offer a more sustainable alternative for three similar value chains that are currently derived from fossil resources resulting in a significant step towards the biobased economy.
FALCON addresses the environmental feasibility of the value chains in that it will develop an innovative process that is performed under mild conditions using enzymatic conversions and mild chemical treatments. The chemicals used are bio-degradable resulting in a process that is much more environmentally friendly than the fossil-based process it replaces. Therefore, the overall process will use an industrial waste-stream from an environmentally favorable alternative fuel (2G bioethanol) and convert this to another environmentally favorable fuel (low-sulphur heavy fuel oil for marine use) and biobased chemicals. As part of the holistic sustainability assessment, the three value chains are investigated regarding resource efficiency and environmental impact within the Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) to demonstrate their environmental feasibility.