Chemical Engineering October 2013 - 15

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CHEMENTATOR
STORY NAME
(Continued from p. 15)
Solid-catalyst method for breaking
down cellulosic biomass cuts costs
ermenting sugar is at the heart of many bio-based chemical
and biofuel processes, but obtaining sugars from cellulosic
biomass at low cost is an ongoing challenge. A new
process using a reusable solid catalyst is capable of breaking
down a wide range of waste biomass into fermentable sugars
at costs lower than deriving sugar from corn or sugarcane.
Midori Renewables (Cambridge, Mass.; www.midorirenewF
ables.com),
a Flagship VentureLabs company, has developed
a biomass-to-sugar process that depends on a polymer catalyst
functionalized with ionic species. Consisting of spherical
polymers with specially designed functional groups on
the surface, the catalyst enables reactions similar to those
that break down cellulose biologically, but does not require
enzymes, mineral acids or microorganisms.
" We looked at a large number of approaches to breaking
down cellulosic biomass, and found that the solid catalyst
approach was underexplored and underdeveloped, " explains
Midori's founder and Chairman Brian Baynes. The company
is now able to produce ton-scale amounts of the reusable
catalyst and 50-100 kg/h of sugar at its pilot sites.
The conversion process works by using low-grade steam
to heat a pre-mixed reaction chamber containing the biomass
and catalyst, to about 100°C. Once the cellulose is
converted to sugar, the catalyst is filtered out for re-use.
The process is designed to be installed on the front end
of an ethanol facility to provide fermentable sugars for
further processing. The overall production costs depend
on many factors, Baynes says, but the company expects to
be able to produce sugar for below $0.10/lb, and possibly
as low as a few cents per pound given the right logistics.
By comparison, producing sugar from corn and sugarcane
costs $0.15-0.20/lb.
Baynes says Midori is in the site-selection and engineering
stage of a " commercial demonstration plant " for the
process, and expects facility construction to begin in 2014.
Cross-coupling catalyst
A
highly active nickel catalyst for performing cross-coupling
reactions has been developed by the research group
of professor Shu Kobayashi at the University of Tokyo
(Japan; www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp). The researchers were
able to immobilize nickel nanoparticles onto a polymer
support matrix in such a way to avoid metal leaching and
deactivation - two problems that have hampered development
up to now. Using the group's polymer-incarceration
(PI) technique (CE, September 2012, p. 16), they designed
N-heterocyclic-carbene precursors as active cross-linking
agents within the polymer support matrix.
The Ni-based catalyst system was successfully applied
to the Corriu-Lumda-Tamao reaction, which is important
for forming C-C bonds. Yields of 68-98% have been observed
for a broad range of substrates, and the catalyst
system could be recovered and reused several times without
loss of activity.
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Chemical Engineering October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering October 2013
