A low-cost solid–liquid separation process for enzymatically hydrolyzed corn stover slurries. (July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sievers, David A.; Lischeske, James J.; Biddy, Mary J.; Stickel, Jonathan J.
• Is Part Of: Bioresource technology. Volume 187(2015)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 42
• Publication Date: 2015-07
• Subjects: Flocculation -- Solid–liquid separation -- Filtration -- Biofuels -- Enzymatic hydrolysis; Biomass -- Periodicals; Biomass energy -- Periodicals; Bioremediation -- Periodicals; Agricultural wastes -- Periodicals; Factory and trade waste -- Periodicals; Organic wastes -- Periodicals; Bioénergie -- Périodiques; Déchets agricoles -- Périodiques; Déchets industriels -- Périodiques; Déchets organiques -- Périodiques; Déchets (Combustible) -- Périodiques; 662.88
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.03.087
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0960-8524

Abstract

Highlights: Polyelectrolyte flocculates and increases particle size of enzymatic hydrolyzate. Overall filtration performance increased up to 40-fold. Techno-economic model savings of up to $3.40/gal gasoline equivalent. Abstract: Solid–liquid separation of intermediate process slurries is required in some process configurations for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to transportation fuels. Thermochemically pretreated and enzymatically hydrolyzed corn stover slurries have proven difficult to filter due to formation of very low permeability cakes that are rich in lignin. Treatment of two different slurries with polyelectrolyte flocculant was demonstrated to increase mean particle size and filterability. Filtration flux was greatly improved, and thus scaled filter unit capacity was increased approximately 40-fold compared with unflocculated slurry. Although additional costs were accrued using polyelectrolyte, techno-economic analysis revealed that the increase in filter capacity significantly reduced overall production costs. Fuel production cost at 95% sugar recovery was reduced by $1.35 US per gallon gasoline equivalent for dilute-acid pretreated and enzymatically hydrolyzed slurries and $3.40 for slurries produced using an additional alkaline de-acetylation preprocessing step that is even more difficult to natively filter.