Chemical Engineering September 2014 - 11

Edited by Gerald Ondrey
September 2014
Demonstration plants for biomass-to-sugar technology under construction
E
Demo Plant Design
deniq Inc. (Visalia, Calif.;
www.edeniq.com)
announced
progress in building
demonstration facilities in
Brazil and China that feature
the company's proprietary
process for converting cellulosic
biomass into industrial
sugar for fermentation or catalytic
conversion (diagram).
In Brazil's São Paulo state,
Edeniq is partnering with
Usina Vale to build a 10-ton/d
demonstration plant that will
bolt onto an existing sugarcane-to-bioethanol
production
facility, allowing it to increase ethanol
production by utilizing waste biomass.
Meanwhile, in Jilin province,
China, Edeniq is partnering with
Global Bio-chem Group (Hong Kong,
China) to build a commercial demonstration
facility that will eventually
produce 50,000 metric tons (m.t.) per
year of sugar from corn stover at an
attractive transfer price, the company
says.
Both facilities feature Edeniq's patented
continuous biomass-pretreatment
technology, which hydrates the
biomass, and mechanically grinds and
mills the material. They also feature
a closely integrated continuous saccharification
process that depends on
B
C
ing obviates the need for high
temperatures and corrosive
chemicals in the pretreatment
stage, he adds.
Edeniq has also developed
A
D
A. Pre-processing B. Pre-treatment C. Saccharification
D. Separations and product recovery
Confidential
a proprietary reactor design to reduce
residence times and increase enzymehydrolysis
efficiency.
Among three types of mechanical
shearing equipment deployed in the
process, Edeniq's pre-treatment step
features the Cellunator, which produces
a homogenous, high-density
slurry of biomass solids, while reducing
average particle size to the several-hundred-micron
range, explains
Tom Griffin, chief technology officer
at Edeniq. The comprehensive shearing
and homogenization action gives
enzymes enhanced access to biomass
particles, which allows higher conversion
rates to fermentable sugars.
Further, the use of mechanical shearMercury
removal with modified aluminosilicate clay
T
he first commercial contract delivery
was recently made for an emissions
control product that removes mercury
from fluegas without the use of activated
carbon. The product, known as
AS-HgX, is made by Novinda Corp.
(Denver, Colo.; www.novinda.com), and
will be used in the utility power-generation
industry to help users meet limits
on mercury emissions.
The product is a departure from the
use of activated carbon to adsorb mercury
from fluegas, as is done with conventional
technology, and offers a host of
advantages over the current approach.
In power plants where activated carbon
is used to remove mercury, the activated
carbon often contaminates the flyash,
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit number
on p. 76, or use the website designation.
a unique solid-liquid separation
process that generates a
solids-free sugar solution as a
product, which is continually
removed. The enzymes, additives
and unreacted substrate
are continuously recycled in
the process. The separation
step features a high-throughput
tangential-flow filtration
(TFF) system that has been
customized for biomass. The Edeniq
process also includes a step in which
solid lignin is captured as a co-product;
it can be used as a fuel to heat process
boilers, or further developed into
a livestock feed component.
Edeniq currently operates pilot
facilities at its California headquarters
and an Omaha, Neb. based business
unit that utilizes the company's
technology to enhance ethanol yields
from corn. The Brazil plant has begun
qualification testing of preprocessing
unit operations, with construction
completion planned for late 2014. The
China plant will be constructed in
late 2014, with Edeniq enhancements
integrated in stages through 2015.
rendering it useless as a replacement for
ordinary Portland cement. Using flyash
in concrete can reduce carbon emissions
considerably and save significant money,
notes Jim Butz, vice president of product
management at Novinda. Butz further
explains that a cradle-to-grave analysis
of AS-HgX (manufacturing, transport,
and so on) shows that its carbon footprint
is one-tenth that of activated carbon. Another
advantage of the product over activated
carbon is its inertness. It does not
present flammability and explosion risks,
as activated carbon does.
Starting with an aluminosilicate clay,
Novinda has developed a patented formula
that infuses a proprietary metal
(Continues on p. 12)
CO2-to-syngas . . .
Scientists from the University
of illinois at Chicago
( www.uic.edu) have developed
a catalytic system
- molybdenum disulfide
and an ionic liquid - to
convert Co2 into synthesis
gas, (syngas; a mixture
of Co and h2 that is used
for making liquid fuels and
chemicals, such as methanol).
Unlike alternative Co2reduction
processes, which
only generate Co, the new
catalyst system enables
the production of syngas
directly. the catalyst is also
said to be less expensive
(Continues on p. 12)
ChemiCal engineering www.Chemengonline.Com September 2014 11
http://www.edeniq.com http://www.uic.edu http://www.novinda.com http://www.Chemengonline.Com
Chemical Engineering September 2014

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