(407d) Evaluation of Alternative Non-Wood Biofiber As Part of An Overall Integrated Biorefinery Approach | AIChE

(407d) Evaluation of Alternative Non-Wood Biofiber As Part of An Overall Integrated Biorefinery Approach

Authors 

Ramaswamy, S. - Presenter, University of Minnesota
Tschirner, U., University of Minnesota



There has been an increasing interest in the use of woody and non-woody biomass for cellulosic biofuels, bioenergy and various other bioproducts. Agricultural residues constitute a major portion, up to 2500 million dry bone tones, of the non-food biomass that is available throughout the world and it has not been effectively utilized. In addition to considering their use for cellulosic biofuels and drop-in biofuels, one of the other considerations, an equally important value-added product, is the use of cellulose fiber as an alternate source of fiber. While the total pulp and paper consumption in the world is growing, driven mostly by the growth in the developing part of the world, but the availability of good quality fiber is scarce and in high demand. For example, most of the high quality recycled fiber is increasingly being exported to China and India driving up the cost of the fiber in the U.S. This increases the need for low cost, alternative biofiber supplanting the additional need in the developing world.

In order to address the above global need for alternative biofiber, here we discuss possible process approaches that can be integrated within a biorefinery framework [1-2]. First, the current biomass resources in U.S. are summarized and the evaluation of different biomass including bagasse, reed, corn stalk, wheat straw, and rice straw etc. is carried out. Our earlier work has shown that a stand-alone green-field mill making market pulp and/or paper from agricultural residues using conventional Kraft pulping may not be feasible due to economies of scale and environmental treatment considerations [3-4]. Unlike wood biomass, collection and transportation costs of nonwood biomass for the large-scale process are much more expensive, likely leading to high overall production cost.

Here we consider alternative processes that may be more suitable at smaller scales and can be integrated with an existing biorefinery such as a corn based ethanol facility or a pulp and paper mill. Potential pulping processes for converting non-wood biomass into biofiber are explored and compared in terms of their process operating conditions, the corresponding fiber properties as well as challenges associated with chemical recovery and environmental treatment. It is to be noted that the quality of the fiber is invariably linked to the quality of the raw material as well as the process and the range of paper products that they are suitable [3-4]. Among the many possible pulping processes, the chemi-mechanical pulping processes such as the BIVIS process,  the soda processes such as the Coneox/Siloxy process, organosolv processes such as the AlCell (alcohol cellulose) process of Repap, the FreeFiber, the CIMV, and the Chempolis processes, have a higher potential for applications in small-scale pulping of alternative feedstocks for biofiber. It is also possible that some of these processes can be integrated with an existing biorefinery further improving the overall viability.

References

1.         H.-J. Huang, W. Lin, S. Ramaswamy, and U. Tschirner. Process modeling of comprehensive integrated forest biorefinery - An integrated approach. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology. 154(1-3):26-37, 2009.

2.         H.-J. Huang, S. Ramaswamy, W. Al-Dajani, U. Tschirner. Process modeling and analysis of pulp mill-based integrated biorefinery with hemicellulose pre-extraction for ethanol production: A comparative study. Bioresource Technology. 101(2): 624-631, 2010.

3. Shrinath, A., U. Tschirner., S. Ramaswamy, “Economics and feasibility of a Greenfield Cereal Straw market pulp mill” Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada 104: 10, 34-37, October 2003

4. Tschirner, U., S. Ramaswamy, S., Goel, A. “Effect of cereal straw fiber addition on papermaking furnish”, Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada 104: 10, 26-29, October 2003