Using the latest technology to set up a profitable biorefinery, using wood pellets as raw material. This is possible, according to the winning concept by students at TU Delft.

Because of its high energy density, lignin from wood is key to the competitive latest generation of renewable raw materials.

Technology with highest yield
The students looked at various processing routes from wood, as well as the differences in pre-treatment technologies. The well-known steam explosion is now the cheapest, but the technology of enzymatic hydrolysis (such as ECN's Organosolv) has a higher yield and therefore more interesting processing possibilities.

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Unequal subsidy landscape
Mainly due to the unequal position of renewable production compared to fossil production - which still receives a factor of ten more subsidies - renewable production initiatives must focus first on the market with the highest yields for feasible business cases. These are the intermediates, especially green raw materials for chemicals and fuels for heavy transport.

Students convinced of urgency
The competition 'Biorefinery for sustainable biofuels and biochemicals' was organised in collaboration between TU Delft and BE-Basic Foundation with the Port of Rotterdam Authority. The eight teams gave impassioned speeches at the WPC on the importance of sustainable production processes and the value of the technologies and processes they reviewed. Although all the business cases also made it clear that in this important transition, the facilitating role of the government is indispensable, the jury was impressed by the opportunities presented.

Succinic acid, lactic acid and farnesane for jet fuels
The winning team consisted of Carla Prat Lienas, Robert Stella, Berber Stevens, Ewout Knibbe and Lieke van der Eijnden. Their concept consisted of cascaded biorefinery processes with processing of the lignin through production of succinic acid, lactic acid and farnesane. The team particularly distinguished itself in its excellent analysis of how subsidies could be reduced to a minimum while simultaneously accelerating the innovation process.

Innovation subsidy pays off
Chairman Prof Luuk van der Wielen: "In less than eight weeks, these teams worked out a complex, realistic case for making raw material refining more sustainable at all relevant levels. All teams managed to develop interesting concepts with a high CAPEX, sometimes even a high OPEX, and attention to market developments worldwide. However, these concepts cannot land without government subsidy, as they only become truly profitable at a later stage. Unfortunately, most subsidies still go to biomass co-firing, whereas it is precisely the cascaded utilisation of biomass that can deliver the desired sustainability gains."

More information: (TU Delft) l.a.m.vanderwielen@tudelft.nl (06) 22 80 28 00 and i.vandervoort-polla@tudelft.nl (015) 27 89 143

Reprinted from deltalinqs.nl