Analysis of Sequential Pretreatments to Enhance the Early-Stage Biorefinery Designs

Pretreatment technologies are proposed to break the crosslinked biomass matrix and facilitate bioconversion processes or chemical agent attacks in reaction schemes. However, most of the pretreatments are studied in single-step schemes, limiting the integral valorization of the feedstock composition....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 13; no. 11; p. 6758
Main Authors Poveda-Giraldo, Jhonny Alejandro, Cardona Alzate, Carlos Ariel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2023
Subjects
Alternative energy
Bioconversion
Biodegradable materials
Biodiesel fuels
Biodiversity
Biofuels
Biomass
biomass fractionation
biorefinery
Cellulose
Design
Economic indicators
Fractionation
Hemicellulose
Heuristic
Indicators
Kraft process (woodpulp)
Lignin
Lignocellulose
lignocellulosic feedstock
Oxidation
platform products
Pretreatment
Raw materials
Solubilization
Steam explosions
sustainability
Wet oxidation
Wet oxidation process
Colombia
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Summary:Pretreatment technologies are proposed to break the crosslinked biomass matrix and facilitate bioconversion processes or chemical agent attacks in reaction schemes. However, most of the pretreatments are studied in single-step schemes, limiting the integral valorization of the feedstock composition. Therefore, sequential pretreatments could maximize this valorization by isolating more biomass fractions or removing unwanted compounds. This work focuses on proposing and assessing different sequential pretreatments for the isolation of lignocellulosic fractions. After a pretreatment screening, ten technical and economic indicators were assessed through a heuristic analysis. Data from the literature were used to evaluate five operational indicators and as the specification of processing units in simulation schemes to also evaluate five techno-energetic and economic indicators. As a main result, it was concluded that the sequential pretreatments of dilute acid (DA) with wet air oxidation (WAO) could be the most optimal for cellulose isolation, steam explosion (SE) with DA for hemicellulose fractionation, and DA with kraft process for lignin solubilization. Additionally, the DA and WAO sequence may be the most efficient in biorefinery designs since it maximizes biomass fractionation, producing two hydrolyzed liquors, one rich in sugars and the other in soluble lignin, as well as a cellulose-rich solid.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app13116758