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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BioCatPolymers (Sustainable and efficient bio-chemical catalytic cascade conversion of residual biomass to high quality biopolymers)

Teaser

Summary

Despite the discovery and development of numerous platform cell factories, bio-based production is not (or not fully) competitive in terms of economics. In combination with the historically low crude oil prices and the financial crisis, this has been threatening the future development and up-scaling of biochemical production technologies. The main objective of BioCatPolymers is to demonstrate a cost-effective, sustainable and efficient cascade technological route for the conversion of low-value, low-quality residual biomass to bio-polymers with equal or better performance than their fossil-based counterparts.
BioCatPolymers is specifically aiming at the efficient and economic production of two monomers with very large markets that can be further processed in the existing infrastructure for the production of various large commodity products, such as synthetic rubber for the production of car tires, polyurethanes and polyesters that can be used as foams for insulation, in footwear production etc. An important advantage of these plastics is the use of renewable biomass as feedstock for their production. The novel approach in the BioCatPolymers technology lies in the integration of biochemical with thermochemical processes, combining the best features of both.

Work performed

During the first reporting period, the experimental work has been carried out using mainly laboratory scale reaction systems in terms of the feedstock pre-treatment and enzymatic hydrolysis to cellulosic sugars, the fermentation of cellulosic sugars to MVL over engineered microbes and the thermo-catalytic conversion of MVL to isoprene and 3MPD over inexpensive heterogeneous catalysts. The main focus has been to develop and optimize the process conditions, reactor configurations and microbes/heterogeneous catalysts for the aforementioned process steps. At the same period, based on the experimental results, first conceptual designs of the proposed process with techno-economic and environmental evaluation have been achieved. The work that has been performed during M1-M18 allowed the selection of the optimum conditions for the demonstration of the process at larger scale that will be performed in the second half of the project.
The feedstock evaluation study led to the selection of five different low quality residual lignocellulosic biomasses with high potential and the efficient pre-treatment and production of 10 kg of pre-treated material from wheat straw, birch chips and spruce sawdust. Enzymatic hydrolysis experiments were performed on 100 lt scale with the selected biomasses and produced a total quantity of 8.5 kg of cellulosic sugars.
An improved strain with MVL-producing genes on a plasmid that uses nadC instead of kanR as a marker, for plasmid maintenance and for production of MVL was successfully engineered. Different hydrolysates produced from the selected biomasses were evaluated to determine the optimized conditions and feedstock for MVL production. Fermentation was scaled-up to 2 lt, producing 50 g/lt of MVL starting from birch hydrolysate.
The efficient thermochemical conversion of sugar-derived mevalonolactone to 3-methyl-1,5-pentanediol over inexpensive Cu-based catalysts with > 80 % yield was demonstrated on lab-scale. For the MVL to isoprene route, more than six new catalysts were tested, achieving a maximum yield of ~ 60% (based on theoretical maximum). These values are close to the targets set in the proposal and it is considered feasible to achieve them after optimization of the process conditions and reactor configuration that will be performed in the second half of the project.
The first design of the process for the production of 3-methyl 1,5-pentanediol from second generation sugars was completed and the risks linked with the financing needs, the supply chain, the establishment of a first production unit were identified.
Regarding dissemination, the 1st technical workshop was successfully organized on May 15, 2019, in Delft, Netherlands. In December 2018 the first Annual Newsletter of the project was published. The BioCatPolymers project and its innovative technology were presented at four well renowned conferences and a workshop.

Final results

Advances of the technologies beyond the state-of-the art and expected results
The pre-treatment step, in terms of biomass handling was optimized and the ideal handling-feeding process before the pretreatment for the selected biomasses was defined. The optimum pretreatment process conditions were defined and selected, in order to minimize by-products inhibitory and decrease the scale-up risk. Pre-treated biomass was successfully subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis with a state-of-the-art enzyme cocktail, producing birch-derived cellulosic sugars.
An antibiotic-free mevalonate producing strain was engineered to improve robustness and titer for the fermentation of cellulosic sugars to MVL. Fermentation was scaled-up to 2 L, achieving the production of > 50 g/L of MVL starting from birch hydrolysate. The optimization of microbes will continue to develop microbes that can withstand contaminants in low-quality cellulosic sugars. The final goal is the upscale of the fermentation process to 4000 L.
Inexpensive heterogeneous catalysts were developed for the thermochemical conversion of MVL to isoprene and 3-methyl-1,5-pentanediol. A maximum yield of 60% was achieved for isoprene over a high SiO2 content amorphous SiO2-Al2O3 and a maximum yield of 80% for 3MPD over a mixed Cu-Cr catalyst. Further efforts with include the optimization of the operating conditions and the long term testing to determine catalyst stability for over 300 h time-on-stream.

Impact
BioCatPolymers could have a great impact to both economic growth and improved competitiveness for the European biochemical and biopolymers industry, with total savings of over 2 billion euros. The application of the new technological routes in the long term will improve substantially the economic, environmental and social benefits of bio-based chemicals. The key expected impacts of BioCatPolymers will be a) economic through the achieved significant reduction in bio-monomer production costs and the replacement of fossil fuel-derived chemicals, displacing crude oil imports and associated costs; b) environmental due to the enlarged renewable feedstock for production of biochemicals, the increase of the overall energy efficiency of bio-based chemicals production and the reduced GHG emissions and c) social by increasing the competitiveness and positioning of the bio-based, petrochemical and chemical industry in Europe, creating job opportunities and eliminating health risks associated with waste, with additional environmental and economic benefits.