OVERCOMING TECHNICAL BARRIERS IN

BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM

LIGNOCELLULOSICS

LIISA VIIKARI
VTT Biotechnology, Finland

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 VTT
(Technical Research Centre of Finland)
Through creating and applying
technology, we actively enhance the
competitiveness of industry and other
business sectors, and thus increase the
welfare of society.
EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels
Staff: 3000
Turnover: 214 Million €
8 Basic government funding
to research on VTT’s own
initiative 34 Million €
8 Jointly funded projects
92 Million €
8 Commercial activities
88 Million €
Devided into six research units
Beijing, 4-5 November 2004
 VTT BIOTECHNOLOGY

VTT Biotechnology has carried out pioneering

work in the development biotechnical tools for
the production of biofuels from lignocellulosics

Core competences:
8 Yeast genetics
8 Metabolic engineering
8 Enzymology
8 Fungal molecular biology
8 Fermentation technology
8 Scaling up to 2000 litres

R & D work is carried out in joint projects with

research partners from industry and research
institutes.

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENT OF
ETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM
LIGNOCELLULOSE (TIME)
Duration:
8 1.11.2002-30.10.2005

Goals:
8 To reduce the overall production costs of
ethanol from lignocellulose by 10-20%
through new developments
8 To improve the performance of the key
steps in the lignocellulose-to-ethanol
process (pretreatment, enzymatic
hydrolysis and increased process and
energy integration)
8 To evaluate the production costs and to
assess the environmental impacts by LCA

Coordinator:
VTT Biotechnology (Liisa.Viikari@vtt.fi)

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 THE ERA OF RENEWABLES?

8 Carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gases

8 Utilization of renewables leads to a closed carbon dioxide cycle
8 Renewables include agricultural and forest based raw materials and wastes
8 Lignocellulosic materials can quantitatively replace fossil fuels

CO2 CO2

Biofuels Fossil oil

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 BIOTECHNICAL EXPLOITATION OF
RENEWABLE RAW MATERIALS

Components: To be :

‹ Cellulose ‹ hydrolyzed to
[38-45%] sugars for
production of
‹ Hemicelluloses ethanol or
[25-40%] chemicals

‹ Lignin ‹ used for production

[20-25%] of chemicals or
burning (solid fuel)

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 BIOETHANOL ECONOMICS:
ESTIMATED COSTS BY AREA

Biomass
Feed handling
Pretreatment
Saccharification/fermentation
Cellulase
Distillation & solids recovery
Wastewater treatment
Boiler/turbogenerator
Utilities
Storage

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
% of total costs

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 MAIN PROCESS STEPS IN
BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION
Simultaneous or separate
saccharification
and fermentation
Solid residue
Renewable
lignocellulosic Pre-
materials treatment
softwood Enzymatic Fermen-
hydrolysis tation Distillation
willow or
corn stover separation Ethanol
Physical deconstruction
and fractionation by
refining, steam explosion Hydrolysis of cellulose Biotechnical conversion
or wet oxidation and hemicellulose of sugars (hexoses and Concentration and
by enzymes (acid) pentoses) to product separation of
ethanol

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 TARGET PROCESS STEPS IN TIME

Optimization of pre-treatment of different raw materials

(softwood,corn stover, willow); enhancing the degradability
while minimizing yield loss and inhibitor production

Development of improved enzymes and their efficient

production processes
Enhancing process yield and rate at higher temperature
Improvement of productivity and yield by choosing optimally
engineered yeast strains
Optimization of fermentation technologies
Design of integrated process technology
Minimization of fresh-water and energy consumption

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 DEVELOPMENT OF IMPROVED ENZYMES
AND THEIR EFFICIENT PRODUCTION
PROCESSES

ENZYME PROPERTIES:
8 Specific activity
8 Thermal activity and stability
8 End- product inhibition

ENZYMES FOR EFFICIENT HYDROLYSIS:

8 Composition of cellulase mixture
8 Role of additional enzymes
8 Efficient production hosts and systems

HYDROLYSIS TECHNOLOGIES
8 Separate/simultaneous/stepwise
8 Temperature
8 Optimal use of enzymes

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY BY METABOLIC
ENGINEERING AND BY OPTIMIZED FERMENTATION
TECHNOLOGIES

DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANISMS
8 Recombinant Saccharomyces strains
8 Xylose pathway introduced to the genome
8 Tolerant parent strains from industrial fermentations

TARGETS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF STRAINS

8 High ethanol production rate on natural substrates
8 High fermentation rate on xylose

FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGIES
8 Optimized hydrolysis and fermentation
8 Different process concepts for high product
concentrations

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 PARTICIPANTS

Finland, VTT
(enzymology, yeasts, fermentation)

Finland, Roal
(industrial enzyme production)

Sweden, LU (pretreatment,
flowsheeting)

Denmark, Risoe
(hydrolysis, pretreatment)

The Netherlands, Nedalco

(industrial ethanol production)

Hungary, BUTE
(raw materials, hydrolysis)

Italy, ENEA
(pretreatment, flowsheeting, LCA)

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004

 POTENTIAL COOPERATION
BETWEEN EU AND CHINA

EU

China

Foreseeable benefits of
China-EU cooperation in
areas, such as:

8 exploration of different raw

materials
8 new enzyme development
8 metabolic engineering
8 process development
8 technology transfer

EU-China workshop on liquid biofuels Beijing, 4-5 November 2004