ST2-02: Pathway to commercialization of lignocellulosic ethanol

GreenField Ethanol is Canada’s largest producer of fuel ethanol, with production capacity of 450 million litres.  The company currently produces fuel ethanol from 4 first generation corn-based plants in Ontario and Quebec; two plants also produce industrial ethanol for North American markets.  In 2007, GFE assembled a Cellulosic Ethanol division to develop technology for the production of ethanol from lignocellulose.  This presentation reviews GreenField’s experience with biochemical conversion of plant fibres.  Greenfield’s approach includes a simplified mechanical system of pretreatment to produce a sugar solution, which will yield high ethanol concentrations when integrated with new fermentation techniques and enzyme technologies.  Corn cobs were initially chosen as the preferred feedstock due to their relatively low lignin content; however, experiments have covered a wide range of feedstocks with the goal of becoming “feedstock agnostic”.  The research team has evaluated hundreds of process configurations including pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, and energy integration, and have selected conditions that give ethanol yields higher than 300 litres per tonne of biomass.  Our success to date has been made possible by close collaboration with our technology partners Novozymes, the world’s leading enzyme producer, and Andritz, a major supplier of biomass processing equipment.  Enzyme costs have been reduced more than 30 fold in the last two years.  A novel multistage steam explosion and washing system has reduced the toxicity of our hydrolysates allowing large improvements in both hydrolysis and fermentation.  GreenField technology will ultimately be applicable to a wide range of lignocellulosic feedstocks, including agricultural, forest, and municipal streams.