Chemical Engineering June 2023 - 8

and cassava pulp. These
sugar monomers could
be used for the production
of biomass-based
polymers for fibers, films,
resins and more.
In the demonstration
project, Toray leveraged
a membrane-based bioprocess
that combines
enzymes and the company's
water-treatment
membranes to separate,
purify, and concentrate
cellulose-derived sugars
in inedible biomass.
Toray undertook this effort
at a demonstration
facility in Udon Thani
Province, Thailand, of
Cellulosic Biomass Technology
Co., which Toray
and Mitsui Sugar set up
in
January
2017. The
demonstration is part of a
project supported by the
New Energy and Industrial
Technology Development
Organization. Toray
showed that CO2 emissions
from this process
are less than half those of
conventional production
setups that concentrate
sugar solutions by evaporating
water.
VOLCANIC FOOD?
As part of the ProFuture
project (www.pro-future.
eu), researchers at Wageningen
University
(the Netherlands; www.
wur.nl) have developed
a method to produce
a promising microalga
species that grows in
volcanic hot springs.
Galdieria sulphuraria is
an extremophile microalga
species with blue
pigment that can live in
extreme conditions and
could represent a resilient
source of protein for
the future.
Although G. sulphuraria
has been studied for decades
due to its resilience
and adaptability, it has not
previously been examined
as a possible food
source or produced at
scale. ProFuture studied
a strain growing in the hot
springs in the Naples region
of Italy and found that
G. sulphuraria biomass
(Continues on p. 9)
8
Recovering proteins - and more -
from rapeseed
L
ast month, a pilot plant officially
opened at the Fraunhofer Center
for
Chemical-Biotechnological
cesses (CBP; Leuna, Germany;
www.cbp.fraunhofer.de). The plant aims to
further develop a process that recovers multiple
products from rapeseed, including highgrade,
pre-raffinate-quality rapeseed oil, a
high-grade, protein-rich kernel concentrate,
secondary plant substances and rapeseed
hulls. The plant, which can process 50 kg/d
of rapeseed, was built as part of the joint
research project EthaNa, which has been
funded by the German Federal Ministry of
Food and Agriculture. The new facility consists
of a de-hulling and an extraction plant.
A fluidized-bed system was developed
that can continuously de-hull up to
100 kg/h of rapeseed. The separated hull
fraction yields an additional product that
can, for example, be used to manufacture
bio-based insulating materials.
The de-hulled kernels are then processed
by the patented EthaNa process, which
uses a technique known as displacement
extraction. The kernels are ground with an
ethanol solvent at 70°C and the released oil
droplets become emulsified in the ethanol
phase. Secondary plant substances, such
as sinapinic acid, tocopherols and polyphenols,
are soluble in ethanol, and could be
selectively extracted to recover bioactive
Procompounds
for cosmetics or pharmaceutical
applications. The oil-rich liquid phase is
separated from the protein-rich solid phase
using a modified screw press or decanter. Finally,
the emulsified oil is separated from the
ethanol using a decanting tank. The recovered
oil is almost entirely free from free-fatty
acids and phosphatides, making it suitable
for integrating directly into existing oil production
lines for further processing.
The protein-rich rapeseed concentrate is
said to be a significantly higher-grade product
than the rapeseed meal from industrial oil
mills, because it is free from hulls and secondary
plant substances - only extremely
small amounts of unwanted tannins and bitter
substances remain.
Because of the mild processing conditions
used, the recovered protein is not degraded,
as occurs with the conventional hot-pressing
process used in industrial oil mills. These
water-soluble proteins can be extracted for
use as alternative protein sources for the
food industry. Further research work, for example
on how the rapeseed proteins can be
obtained to manufacture food, has already
begun as part of a new E.U. project (see
Chem Eng., April 2023, pp. 12-16). The
EthaNa process could potentially be used
for processing other materials, such as sunflower
and hemp seeds, beech nuts, or even
coffee grounds.
Use existing refinery infrastructure for
hydrogen storage and transport
H
ydrogen is a clear piece of the
decarbonization puzzle for many
industrial sectors, including petroleum
refining, but a major challenge
lies in the storage and long-distance
transport of hydrogen in its gaseous form.
One proposed solution is the use of liquid
organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technologies,
wherein hydrogen is chemically combined
into a liquid carrier for easier transport
and storage, but LOHC requires reactors
and other equipment that can be complex
and expensive to set up. A new LOHC
technology recently launched by Honeywell
(www.honeywell.com), based on Honeywell
UOP technologies, enables the use of existing
infrastructure at petroleum refineries
for LOHC, which significantly decreases the
capital investment required to adopt LOHC
processes when compared with constructing
new facilities.
The new LOHC technology draws from
established UOP technologies for aromatics
saturation and naphtha reforming, both of
which can achieve very high hydrogen selectivities,
explains Kelly Seibert, vice president
and general manager for Honeywell UOP
Process Technologies for Refining and Petrochemicals.
" The LOHC solution is based on
the Honeywell UOP Toluene Hydrogenation
process, in which toluene and clean hydrogen
are reacted to form methylcyclohexane
(MCH) in the presence of a proprietary catalyst.
MCH can be transported using the same
carrier vessels and infrastructure that are currently
used to transport gasoline. At the import
destination, the imported methylcyclohexane
is dehydrogenated in the presence
of a proprietary catalyst via the Honeywell
UOP Methylcyclohexane Dehydrogenation
process. High-purity hydrogen is released,
which is then distributed to the hydrogen
users, and the resultant toluene is ready for
re-hydrogenation, " says Seibert. According
to Seibert, existing refinery processes, especially
reforming units, can undergo minor revamps
to be repurposed for LOHC, irrespective
of the original licensor for the units.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
JUNE 2023
http://www.cbp.fraunhofer.de http://www.pro-future.eu http://www.pro-future.eu http://www.wur.nl http://www.wur.nl http://www.honeywell.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering June 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering June 2023
