Inbicon's one stage steam pretreatment ensures high glucan and xylan conversion by allowing the main part of the inhibitory compounds to bypass the first phase of the hydrolysis

As a company, DONG Energy shows leadership for the transmission from a fossil-based to a non-fossil-based energy platform. The Inbicon biorefinery technologies have been developed over the last 10 years. The first Inbicon pilot plant (2.4MT/day) opened in 2003.  In late 2009, the first Inbicon Biomass Refinery opened (96MT/day) and was integrated with the largest power plant in Denmark.

The Inbicon technology is based on a one-stage steam pretreatment followed by solid/liquid separation and enzymatic hydrolysis. The solid fraction is treated enzymatically at high dry matter with proprietory mixing technology and yields a stream with a high monomeric sugar content. Due to the one-stage steam pretreatment technology without acid addition, the Inbicon biorefinery recovers more than 90% of the lignin as an excellent solid biofuel, low in S content.

To increase the monomeric carbohydrate yield further, Inbicon has developed an improved version of the biorefinery in which it is possible to include hemicellulose. The utilisation of the hemicellulose sugars ought to increase the yield substantially, which has now been proven in pilot and demonstration scale. A range of compounds inhibit the enzymatic conversion, and a high glucan conversion and xylan conversion is ensured by allowing the majority of the inhibitory compounds to bypass the first phase of the hydrolysis.  The advantage of one-stage steam pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis with bypass for the flexible Inbicon biomass refinery is given in this presentation for multiple biomasses. The effect of storage on biomass quality will also be mentioned.