BIT s 3rd Annual World Congress of Bioenergy-2013 Nanjang, China, April 25-27 2013 Introduction to a Disruptive Bio-butanol Technology Alex Tong Vice President and General Director GEL/ ITRI 2013. 05. 26 Copyright 2013 ITRI 工業技術研究院 1
Introduction to ITRI Non-profit research organization with more than 6,000 researchers generating over 1,000 US patents a year Global leading organization in developing new businesses and technologies Won six R&D 100 Awards in 2012 Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 2
Market in need of Advanced Bio-fuel US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) caps corn ethanol at 15 bgy due to limited GHG reduction (~20%) EU Renewable Energy Directives (RED) requires GHG Savings >35%, and 50-60% by 2017 GHG reduction requirement Advanced Biofuel: 50% Cellulosic Biofuel: 60% Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 3
Advanced Bio-fuels Still in Small-Scale Trial Cellulosic ethanol stalled at the moment US Actual production significantly below allotment: 8.65 Mgal vs. 500 Mgal in 2012 Gevo cut back its iso-butanol production and instead produced more ethanol on its demo plant in Luverne, Minnesota Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 4
ITRI s Solution ButyFix --Highest carbon yield worldwide-- Lignocellulose Pretreatment Sugars Butyric Product Butanol Fermentation Hydrolysis Acid Recovery Hydrolysis Eco-solvent: lower processing cost High reaction rate: lower equipment cost Mild operation condition: less energy consumption Fermentation No CO 2 release : fully-utilized feedstock and better GHG reduction Immobilized cell: easy to operate and reduce pre-culture cost C5 and C6 sugars fermentable: lignocellulose feedstock Less heat and gas generation: easy to scale-up Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 5
Challenges of Lignocellulose Pretreatment Cellulose (38-50%) Extend of reaction Inhibitor formation Lignin degradation Detoxification needed Wastewater treatment Reactor design for high loading Lignin (15-25%) Hemicellulose (23-32%) Pretreatment/ Conditioning Cellulose & Lignin (Solid Phase) Hydrolysis C5 Sugars solution (mainly from hemicellulose) Feedstock selective Enzyme Slow reaction Sugar yield Lignin suspend in the solution ~10% sugar syrup result in ~5% EtOH Fermentation Fermentation Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 6
Challenges of Enzymatic Hydrolysis Process Require different pretreatment for different feedstock Control of cellulose de-crystallization and lignin degradation Enzyme activity and Inhibitors (HMF, FF, Phenol) Pretreatment Hydrolysis Xylose Glucan Glucose Xylose Cellulase Enzyme Active site 1 2 3 Typical composition of biomass Component Percent Dry Weight Glucan Lignin Glucan Cellulose 40-60% Hemicellulose 20-40% Lignin 10-25% Lignin Enzyme Active site 1 2 3 Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 7
ITRI s Eco-Solvent Process Eco-solvent: lower processing cost Homogeneous reaction: high reaction rate and lower equipment cost Mild operation condition: less energy consumption Esterification RCOOH + heat, metal salt cat. Soluble + H 2 O The crystalline structure of cellulose is destroyed by forming soluble ester Hydrolysis + RCOOH Using organic acid to hydrolyze ester to glucose Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 8
Typical Experiment Results 10 wt.% of microcrystalline cellulose tested Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) concentration lower than 0.03 g/l Total sugar yield determined by using 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method (a) (b) Optical microscope images of cellulose (100x): (a) before dissolving, (b) after dissolving Cellulose in ionic solution (II) Ionic solution Metal salt /organic acid Esterification Temp. ( ) Time (hr) Water content (%) Hydrolysis Temp. ( ) Time Total sugar yield (wt.%) 60 3 33 100 1.5 89 (hr) Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 9
Benchmarking of Hydrolysis Tech. Advantages of ITRI hydrolysis technology: Fast hydrolysis High total sugar yield >95% (including sugar oligomers) Low cost of pretreatment Items Enzyme hydrolysis H 2 SO 4 hydrolysis HCl hydrolysis Biomass 17% corn stover 14.6% straw 10% wood Pretreatment Hydrolysis 6% H 2 SO 4 (aq), 6 atm, 158, 3~7 min 70% H 2 SO 4 (aq), 1 20 mg protein/g cellulose, 48, reaction time 84 hr atm, 60-80, 1 min 43% H 2 SO 4, 80-100, total reaction time 2-6 hr 39% HCl(aq), 1 atm, 20-50, reaction time 8-16 hr ITRI Ionic Solution 10% sugarcane bagasse Salt/organic acid, 1 atm, 55, 3 hr 100, reaction time~2hr Total Products sugar 1 - - >90% 95% 3 Yield Glucose 2 86% 70-80% >50% 68% Xylose 2 80% 60-70% 90% 83% 1. Wt%. 2. Mole% 3. Theoretical yield 111 wt%, ex.: glucan glucose, 180/162=111% Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 10
Fermentation Proprietary technology fixes carbon in the product during fermentation World-leading carbon conversion efficiency to butyrate 94% from glucose 61% from xylose Regulation of metabolic pathway Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 11
Carbon Fixation 13 C 13 C Lactate Pyruvate 12 C-acetate 13 CO 2 13 C-acetate Acetate Acetyl-CoA Butyrate 12 C-butyrate H m/e = 73 13 C-butyrate Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 12
World-Leading Yield 30% increase in solvent yield over cutting-edge technology Butyrate/Butanol Carbon yield (%) Solvent Yield (g/g-sugar) Current Status Theoretical Maximum Reference ITRI UCLA UCB OSU 94% 0.70 g Butyrate 57% 0.35 g-butanol 45% 0.28 g-butanol 62% 0.50 g-butyrate 100% 67% Nature, 2008 67% Nat Chem Biol., 2011 67% DOE Program Commercial ABE Process 34% 0.21 g-butanol 67% Current Opinion in Biotech., 2011 Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 13
Enable Technology to Meet RFS2 GHG emissions (g CO 2 eq./mj) 100 80 60 40 20 0 93.8 GHG Reduction 71 (24.3%) 57.6 (38.6%) Gasoline Fuel Distribution Conversion Feedstock transport Feedstock Production -1.3 (101.4%) -20 Ref: 1. M. Q. Wang et al., biomass and bioenergy, 2011, 35, 1885. 2. M. Q. Wang et al., The Lifecycle Carbon Footprint of Biofuels, Proceedings of a conference January 29, 2008, in Miami Beach, FL. 3. J. Sheehan et al., 2003, V.7, No. 3 4, 117. Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 Gasoline Corn EtOH ITRI Corn BuOH ITRI Cellulosic BuOH 14
Levelized Cost ($/GJ) 30 25 20 15 10 5 Cost Projection Corn: $6.5/Bu (25.6 cent/kg) Corn stalk: 6.45 cent/kg Operation Capital cost Feedstock cost 0 Corn EtOH ITRI Corn BuOH ITRI Cellulosic BuOH Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 15
Value Proposition 1. Reference: SRI PEP Report, 2008 2. Capacity: 150,000 MT/y 3. Project life: 20 yrs 4. Ethanol price 2.5 $/gal, Butanol price 3.271 $/gal,plant life 20yrs, Federal tax 35%, 200% declining balance 5. Interest: 1% Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 16
Summary The mega trend in biofuel development is on non-food feedstock, improved GHG savings and drop-in fuel quality; Cost competitiveness against petro-fuel is the ultimate goal. None of cellulosic bio-fuel facilities have reached healthy operation at the moment. ITRI proprietary ButyFix technology, with world-leading carbon conversion efficiency, can be a winner. Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 17
Thank you for your attention Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院
Backup Slides Copyright 2013 ITRI 工業技術研究院 19
Cost Estimation Baseline Baseline: Capacity:150,000 metric ton/a Butyric acid conc. In fermentor:5 wt% Carbon yield from glucose to butyric:94.0% Carbon yield from C5 sugar to butyric:61.0% Butyric yield ( kg butyric/ kg sugar) :0.70 (corn), 0.61 (corn stover) Fermentation time:6.6 hrs/batch Yield of Methyl Butyrate:98 mole% Yield of Butanol via hydrogenation:99 mole% Aspen plus simulation based on cost in 2012 dollar Corn Butanol Process Starch content:62 wt% Sugar yield:1.103 kg sugar/kg starch Ref: SRI PEP Report 149A (2008) Copyright 2012 ITRI 工業技術研究院 Corn-stover Butanol Process Corn stover:cellulose 50.3wt%, Hemicellulose 24.4 wt%,lignin 19.7wt% Hydrolysis yield:cellulose 90wt%, Hemicellulose 90 wt% (Total sugar yield: 0.67kg sugars/kg stover) Corn stover in hydrolysis tank:20 wt% Butyric yield from sugars:61wt% Lignin combustion for steam generation 20