In Canada, biomass processing technology developer CRB Innovations Inc. (CRB), has announced that its "Integrated Biorefinery" demonstration project has successfully reached its main objective. The cellulosic sugars prepared by CRB in its Westbury Demo facility in Westbury, Quebec (QC) have been fermented by GreenField Global in the installations adjacent to their commercial corn ethanol plant at Varennes, QC.
CRB’s technological platform is the deconstruction and fractionation of quasi-homogeneous biomass into homogenous intermediates. The strategy pursued by the company is the “hub & spoke” approach whereby regional satellite plants produce intermediates that are upgraded to marketable products in finishing plants, the hubs, where economies of scale are reached.
Headquartered in Sherbrooke, QC, the company owns and operates a demonstration plant located in Westbury, QC. The intermediate products produced are cellulosic sugars, cellulose, furan-derivatives, lignin-derivatives, and clean process residues of which the latter can be favorably used in thermochemical conversion platforms.
DEMO success
The “Integrated Biorefinery” demonstration (DEMO) project, conceived, led, and completed by CRB has successfully reached its main objective. The sugars prepared by CRB in its 3.6 tonnes per day of wood input (dry basis) Westbury Demo facility have been fermented by compatriot ethanol producer GreenField Global in the installations adjacent to their commercial corn ethanol plant at Varennes, QC, Canada – 7 000 litres of ethanolic beer at 3.7 percent (w/v) have been produced.
The CRB sugars have been derived from coniferous residues from the Eastern Townships using the FIRSST deconstruction and hydrolytic fractionation technology developed by CRB.
According to CRB, this breakthrough in fractionation technology will allow the company to position itself in the preparation of biogenic intermediates valorized in existing or new finishing hubs.
Along with GreenField Global, additional partners of the DEMO project are: Enerkem (valorization of the process residues), the Institut de Recherche en Électricité du Québec (membrane-and electro-technologies), the Chaire de Recherche Industrielle sur l’éthanol cellulosique et les biocommodités de l’Université de Sherbrooke (depolymerization of cellulose) as well as Natural Resources Canada and the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (catalytic hydrogenation of lignin-derived oligomers to bionaphta and biokerosene).
Validate “hub & spoke” approach
The project has also demonstrated that the “hub and spoke” approach – regional satellite plants producing intermediates upgraded and valorized in finishing plants – is a valuable technological, economic and socio-environmental strategy.
Beyond the ethanolic fermentation, the project has also proven the feasibility of the C5 and C6 conversions to valuable furan-derived compounds and the conversion of lignin into bio-naphta and bio-kerosene as well as specialty oxy-aromatic monomers.
The project has been co-funded by the above-mentioned partners as well as by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and the Ministère de l’Énergie et des Ressources Naturelles du Québec (MERN) along with the Fonds Vert, Québec.
