skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A low-cost solid–liquid separation process for enzymatically hydrolyzed corn stover slurries

Journal Article · · Bioresource Technology
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States). National Bioenergy Center

Solid-liquid separation of intermediate process slurries is required in some process configurations for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to transportation fuels. Thermochemically pretreated and enzymatically hydrolyzed corn stover slurries have proven difficult to filter due to formation of very low permeability cakes that are rich in lignin. Treatment of two different slurries with polyelectrolyte flocculant was demonstrated to increase mean particle size and filterability. Filtration flux was greatly improved, and thus scaled filter unit capacity was increased approximately 40-fold compared with unflocculated slurry. Although additional costs were accrued using polyelectrolyte, techno-economic analysis revealed that the increase in filter capacity significantly reduced overall production costs. Fuel production cost at 95% sugar recovery was reduced by $1.35 US per gallon gasoline equivalent for dilute-acid pretreated and enzymatically hydrolyzed slurries and $3.40 for slurries produced using an additional alkaline de-acetylation preprocessing step that is even more difficult to natively filter.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308; EE0005006
OSTI ID:
1220661
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1250317
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5100-63424
Journal Information:
Bioresource Technology, Vol. 187, Issue C; ISSN 0960-8524
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 13 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (17)

Conversion of Biomass into Chemicals over Metal Catalysts journal October 2013
Enhanced solid–liquid clarification of lignocellulosic slurries using polyelectrolyte flocculating agents journal January 2011
Improved ethanol yield and reduced Minimum Ethanol Selling Price (MESP) by modifying low severity dilute acid pretreatment with deacetylation and mechanical refining: 1) Experimental journal January 2012
Techno-economic analysis of autotrophic microalgae for fuel production journal October 2011
Process Design and Economics for the Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Hydrocarbons: Dilute-Acid and Enzymatic Deconstruction of Biomass to Sugars and Biological Conversion of Sugars to Hydrocarbons report October 2013
Development of a heterogeneous catalyst for lignocellulosic biomass conversion: Glucose dehydration by metal chlorides in a silica-supported ionic liquid layer journal September 2013
A Combined Pore Blockage and Cake Filtration Model for Protein Fouling during Microfiltration journal December 2000
Process Design and Economics for Biochemical Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Ethanol: Dilute-Acid Pretreatment and Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Corn Stover report March 2011
Use of Filter Aids to Improve the Filterability of Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Biomass Suspensions journal October 2013
Membrane separations for solid-liquid clarification within lignocellulosic biorefining processes journal July 2013
Lignin Valorization: Improving Lignin Processing in the Biorefinery journal May 2014
Scale-down characterization of post-centrifuge flocculation processes for high-throughput process development: Characterization of Ultra Scale-Down Flocculation journal September 2014
Production of dimethylfuran for liquid fuels from biomass-derived carbohydrates journal June 2007
Performance and techno-economic assessment of several solid–liquid separation technologies for processing dilute-acid pretreated corn stover journal September 2014
Global bioenergy resources journal January 2014
Simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation of paper sludge to ethanol by Saccharomyces cerevisiae RWB222. Part II: Investigation of discrepancies between predicted and observed performance at high solids concentration journal December 2009
Metabolic Engineering of a Pentose Metabolism Pathway in Ethanologenic Zymomonas mobilis journal January 1995

Cited By (2)

Continuous succinic acid production by Actinobacillus succinogenes on xylose-enriched hydrolysate journal November 2015
Succinic acid production on xylose-enriched biorefinery streams by Actinobacillus succinogenes in batch fermentation journal February 2016