Integrated biorefinery for the production of biofuels and terpenes from loblolly pine: A technoeconomic assessment

Given the current state of the technology and costs associated with lignocellulosic biofuels, biorefineries face challenging economics if they were to produce only biofuels, as fuels are low-value commodities. Biorefineries producing multiple products (fuels and chemicals), which are sometimes referred to as ‘integrated biorefineries’, could possibly be more profitable through product diversification. In this study, based on experiments and modeling, we are investigating the economic impact of terpene (α -pinene) extraction from loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) on the production of biofuels. Based on the lab scale experiments (Papa et al. (2014)), ionic liquid (IL) pretreatment was found to be an effective enabling technology to facilitate co-production of α-pinene together with fermentable sugars. Several scenarios were investigated that include three variants of loblolly pine feedstock (young pine, pine chips from forest residues, and lighter wood) and four types of α-pinene recovery methods (solvent extraction with hexane and dodecane, adsorption on charcoal, and flashing) followed by enzymatic hydrolysis. Based on the preliminary analysis of the experimental results, promising alternatives have been shortlisted – these include lighter wood as a potential feedstock with α-pinene extraction based on either hexane or dodecane after IL pretreatment, followed by bioconversion of fermentable sugars into biofuel. Further analysis using detailed techno-economic models of the integrated biorefinery will be discussed in our presentation. 

References:

Papa G,  Kirby J, Simmons B.A. (2014). Development of an integrated approach to using ionic liquids for terpene recovery from loblolly pine. 36th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals (2014).