(382d) Second Generation Biofuels and Biochemicals: An Industry Perspective

The term biorefinery has been coined as representing the opportunity to produce multiple products from a single feedstock within a single facility. This concept has been put into practice for decades in the agricultural processing industry, particularly the corn wet milling processing industry. The basic concept for corn wet milling involves the separation of corn into four major components, corn oil, corn fiber, protein and starch. The protein, oil and fiber are generally sold into the food and feed markets. Starch is the primary product and is converted to multiple products within a single facility. The list of products includes both fuels such as ethanol, food products, and chemical intermediates. Processes for converting starch include both fermentation to products such as lactic acid and amino acids. Direct chemical conversions, including hydrogenation are employed to afford products such as sorbitol.

The biorefinery of the future will utilize both existing agricultural products such as corn but will also move to utilize new feedstocks such as corn fiber, stover and potentially energy crops such as swtichgrass. The new biorefineries will produce traditional renewable transportation fuels such as ethanol but will also likely produce new fuels that are based on thermal conversions to produce bio-derived oils. Chemical opportunities in the new biorefineries will have the potential to be expansive and include chemical products based on a variety of different carbon number platforms including C2, C3 and C4. These platforms will produce traditional drop in chemical replacements such as propylene glycol, ethylene glycol, 1,4-butanediol and a family of others. In addition, new chemical intermediates with different functionality will provide an opportunity for new growth in the chemical markets.

This presentation will discuss some of the future opportunities associated with the development of the next generation biorefineries that provide an economically viable pathway for the utilization of biomass to produce both fuels and chemicals.