Industrial Biotechnology

HGBiofuels

Constortium: Chalmers, Copenhagen University, SEKAB, Inbicon and Statoil

Project manager & presenter Lisbeth Olsson Industrial Biotechology, Dept. Of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, [email protected]

Industrial Biotechnology • • • •

WHY?

The transportation sector need sustainable fuels The transportation sector is growing EU directive, 20 % biofuels in the transportation sector by 2020 Cost efficient solutions to meet this demand needs to be developed 2

Industrial Biotechnology

WHAT CAN BIOTECHNOLOGY BRING?

Driving forces to use biotechnology

• Cheap & renewable raw materials available for biobased

production

• Utilization of biodiversity to develop advanced biocatalysts • Technologies available for design of advanced cell factories for

production of fuels & chemistry

• Biocatalysts lead to clean and environmentally friendly technology • Less dependence of petroleum based production 3

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WHAT WILL HGBioFuels ADRESS?

• • • Second generation bioethanol production at high gravity – Development of the biocatalysts – Development of process equipment principles Development of biobutanol production Use LCA to evaluate the environmental impact of the processes 4

Industrial Biotechnology

Beyond bioethanol Why butanol?

• Butanol has a higher energy content • compared to ethanol Lower water absorption and • volatility compared to ethanol Existing distribution systems can be • used Can be used in conventional engines without or with less modifications

Why not butanol

Butanol is very toxic to the producing organisms

Industrial Biotechnology

Bioethanol – today/tomorrow

1 st generation bioethanol

60 % of world ethanol production is produced from sugar crops: sugar beet, sugar cane 40 % is produced from grains: corn (maize)

2 nd generation bioethanol (tomorrow)

• Lignocellulose/biomass is an abundant renewable

Issues on 1 st

starch EtOH

generation ethanol

• A fair amount of energy is used for the production of 2 release ≈ 6 Source: F.O. Licht, World Fuel Ethanol – Analysis and Outlook, 2006

Industrial Biotechnology

Lignocellulosic material can be degraded to fermentable sugars, but is more difficult to convert than starch derived raw materials

Hemicellulose is degraded to mainly glucose, galactose, mannose, xylose and arabinose Cellulose is hydrolysed to glucose units

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Bioethanol production from lignocellulose

Chipping/ grinding

Lignocellulosic material

Pretreatment Enzymatic hydrolysis Fermentation Enzyme production Production of cells Enzymatic Hydrolysis Fermentation Down stream processing Ethanol or butanol

Industrial Biotechnology Challenges for the biocatalyst

Lignocellulosic material is recalcitrant and after degradation inhibitory compounds are formed that influence the biocatalysts Cellulose need to be made available to the enzymes Microorganisms need to efficiently convert all sugars

(H. Joergensen)

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Higher gravity leads to poorer performance by the biocatalysts

Fig. 2 200 ºC – 5 min 210 ºC – 5 min

Unadapted strain, F12 Adapted strain Tomas Pejo et al, unpublished data 10

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Microbial cell factories need to ferment lignocellusic materials efficiently

•Robust strain background •Stress tolerance •High product tolerance •Process robustness •Propagation procedure •Nutrional requirements Zaldivar et al. (2001) AMB,

56,

17, Albers, unpublished results 11

Industrial Biotechnology

Which are the challenges for the high gravity processes Very high gravity medium of jet cooked corn, 35 % dry matter Pretreated wheat straw, 30 % dry matter

12

Industrial Biotechnology

S •v=0

R 1 + R 2

k f k r

P i

Host Metabolic Engineering

Cheaper and more environmentally friendly processes will be achieved by:

Pre-treated & Treated RM Energy Supplements, O 2 , CO 2 Biocatalysis Fermentation Downstream

•Design of biocatalysts suitable for renewable raw materials

Product Waste

•Understanding of the whole processes and the interplay between different process steps •Process integration •Use LCA to guiding the process development to ensure improvements with large environmental impact Otero et al (2007) AdvBiotechnol Biochem Eng 108, 1

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Benefits of the HGBiofuels program

• • • • • • Bring together key players in this research area. Interdisciplinary competences Due to strong network access to broad background knowledge Explore Nordic feedstocks (wood and agricultural residues) Use of LCA to evaluate the environmental impact of the processes Academia and industry work closely together Training and mobility 14

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CTH-EE

LCA analysis Process simulation

CTH-CBE

Project manager

Fermentation, physiology, strain improvement

HG Biofuels

KU-LIFE

Enzymatic hydrolysis, material characterisation, detoxification

Inbicon

Pretreatment , large scale process data

SEKAB

Pretreatment, characterisation of material

Statoil

Fermentation, strain improvement

Industrial Biotechnology

Milestones &deliverables

• • • • LCA models High gravity process developed concepts New yeast strains and process conditions for bioethanol production New bacterial strains for biobutanol production 16