Recycling of Dilute Deacetylation Black Liquor to Enable Efficient Recovery and Reuse of Spent Chemicals and Biomass Pretreatment Waste
Abstract
Deacetylation/dilute alkaline pretreatment followed by mechanical refining (DMR) has been proven as an effective process for biomass sugar liberation without severe chemical modification to lignin. Previous research has been focused on optimizing deacetylation conditions, reducing energy consumptions in mechanical refining, and improving sugar yields and titers in enzymatic hydrolysis. To successfully commercialize this process, another critical challenge is to develop a robust process to balance water usage, recover spent chemicals, and utilize waste carbons from the dilute deacetylation waste liquor. In this work, a new process modification and strategy is pioneered to recycle and reuse the weak black liquor (WBL) in order to reduce water, chemical, and energy usage while increasing both inorganic and organic contents in the WBLto facilitate downstream processing. Results suggest that the accumulation did not lower acetyl and lignin removal in alkaline pretreatment, resulting in comparable sugar yields in enzymatic hydrolysis. Sodium and potassium were found to be the two most important inorganic compounds in the recycled WBL. Moreover, the accumulated sodium and phenolic compounds did not inhibit the downstream ethanol fermentation processes. Finally, techno-economic analysis (TEA) showed a decrease in the minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) by ~5 to 15 cents per gallon of ethanolmore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1454888
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1462322
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5100-70802
Journal ID: ISSN 2296-598X; 51
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in Energy Research
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Frontiers in Energy Research Journal Volume: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 2296-598X
- Publisher:
- Frontiers Media SA
- Country of Publication:
- Switzerland
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 09 BIOMASS FUELS; deacetylation and mechanical refining; DMR; black liquor recycling; bioethanol production; minimum ethanol selling price
Citation Formats
Chen, Xiaowen, Kuhn, Erik, Nagle, Nick, Nelson, Robert, Tao, Ling, Crawford, Nathan, and Tucker, Melvin. Recycling of Dilute Deacetylation Black Liquor to Enable Efficient Recovery and Reuse of Spent Chemicals and Biomass Pretreatment Waste. Switzerland: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.3389/fenrg.2018.00051.
Chen, Xiaowen, Kuhn, Erik, Nagle, Nick, Nelson, Robert, Tao, Ling, Crawford, Nathan, & Tucker, Melvin. Recycling of Dilute Deacetylation Black Liquor to Enable Efficient Recovery and Reuse of Spent Chemicals and Biomass Pretreatment Waste. Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00051
Chen, Xiaowen, Kuhn, Erik, Nagle, Nick, Nelson, Robert, Tao, Ling, Crawford, Nathan, and Tucker, Melvin. Tue .
"Recycling of Dilute Deacetylation Black Liquor to Enable Efficient Recovery and Reuse of Spent Chemicals and Biomass Pretreatment Waste". Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00051.
@article{osti_1454888,
title = {Recycling of Dilute Deacetylation Black Liquor to Enable Efficient Recovery and Reuse of Spent Chemicals and Biomass Pretreatment Waste},
author = {Chen, Xiaowen and Kuhn, Erik and Nagle, Nick and Nelson, Robert and Tao, Ling and Crawford, Nathan and Tucker, Melvin},
abstractNote = {Deacetylation/dilute alkaline pretreatment followed by mechanical refining (DMR) has been proven as an effective process for biomass sugar liberation without severe chemical modification to lignin. Previous research has been focused on optimizing deacetylation conditions, reducing energy consumptions in mechanical refining, and improving sugar yields and titers in enzymatic hydrolysis. To successfully commercialize this process, another critical challenge is to develop a robust process to balance water usage, recover spent chemicals, and utilize waste carbons from the dilute deacetylation waste liquor. In this work, a new process modification and strategy is pioneered to recycle and reuse the weak black liquor (WBL) in order to reduce water, chemical, and energy usage while increasing both inorganic and organic contents in the WBLto facilitate downstream processing. Results suggest that the accumulation did not lower acetyl and lignin removal in alkaline pretreatment, resulting in comparable sugar yields in enzymatic hydrolysis. Sodium and potassium were found to be the two most important inorganic compounds in the recycled WBL. Moreover, the accumulated sodium and phenolic compounds did not inhibit the downstream ethanol fermentation processes. Finally, techno-economic analysis (TEA) showed a decrease in the minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) by ~5 to 15 cents per gallon of ethanol resulting from the inclusion of the recycling of weak black liquor when compared to a conventional non-recycling process.},
doi = {10.3389/fenrg.2018.00051},
journal = {Frontiers in Energy Research},
number = ,
volume = 6,
place = {Switzerland},
year = {2018},
month = {6}
}
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https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00051
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00051
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Cited by: 5 works
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Works referenced in this record:
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