A Scottish biorefinery based on wood fibre? MC Jarvis Glasgow University and IBioIC IBioIC intro M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 Policy drivers Scotland's national strategy aims to: Grow industrial biotechnology related turnover to £900m by 2025 Increase the number of IB-using companies to 200. Building on Success, National Plan for IB Progress Report 2015 Create one or more Scottish biorefineries Biorefinery Roadmap for Scotland, 2015 Ambitious plans M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 What is a biorefinery? Produces a liquid biofuel, like bioethanol, from biological feedstocks Is large in scale, like an oil refinery Leads to additional co-products Conventional idea, built around bioethanol production - may need re-thinking This picture of what a biorefinery should look like is now being challenged M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 Corn biorefineries: first-generation biofuels Feedstock is a food product, easily converted to sugar for fermentation: maize, wheat or sugar beet Led to food price inflation and food security problems High fertiliser inputs M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 Second-generation biofuels Feedstock is lignocellulosic biomass: wood, straw, waste Sustainable and avoids competition with food Lower feedstock costs Conversion to sugar is difficult and expensive Oil price means more Interest in non-fuel products Key problem is technical difficulty of converting cellulose, protected by lignin as in wood, into glucose M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 Existing second- generation biorefineries N America: mainly using maize residues Europe: e.g. Sarpsborg, Norway (Borregaard), Lapeenranta, Finland (UPM); some use wood, based mainly on pre-existing chemical pulp mills Scotland: a mechanical pulp mill is not a good starting point. Cellucomp: beet waste to nanocellulose. Celtic Renewables: Distillery waste to industrial solvents M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 Biorefining feedstocks In Scotland, wood has emerged from a number of scoping exercises as the front-running raw material Biorefining in Scotland: Report for Scottish Enterprise by E4tech (UK) Ltd, 2014 M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

‘Sugar platform’ processes Wood Chemical pre-treatment Hemicelluloses Cellulose Lignin Depolymerisation Sugar Phenolic resins Aromatic feedstock chemicals Carbon fibre Fermentation Bioethanol or other products M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 Sugar platform processes Pretreatment is key to success of biorefinery Many competing chemical pretreatment technologies, all expensive Wider range of pretreatments available for hardwoods than softwoods Ideally, the pretreatment should also permit something useful to be done with the lignin Profitability depends on competing sources of sugar. An alternative is to convert the cellulose to nanocellulose. M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

‘Syngas platform’ processes Wood High-temperature gasification Bio-oil Syngas Bio-char Bubbling fermentation Fischer-Tropsch conversion Hydrocarbon fuel and other products Ethanol M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 ‘Syngas platform’ processes Less fussy about composition of raw material Syngas processing chemistry is less developed, although Ineos and Scottish Universities are leaders Markets not well developed for bio-oil and biochar Scottish speciality M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 Wood extractives 2-20% of clearwood depending on species (2% for Sitka). Higher levels in knots, roots, bark Extraction process easily added to front end of biorefinery process Complex mixtures of unfamiliar chemicals Composition quite different according to species and anatomy Scottish speciality M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 What kind of wood fibre is required? First call would be on small roundwood, chips and perhaps sawdust. Biorefinery community looks out for ‘waste’ streams. Pretreatment step easiest for hardwoods Competition with biomass for co-firing and other low-value markets So competition with biomass for co-firing. Not much prospect of premium over prices for co-firing. Could be premium from sawdust (particle size) or from utilising extractives, e.g. Knotwood cut out from finger-jointed products. Lignin and nanocellulose could also create premium, especially if wood quality can be helpful for nanocellulose M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017

M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017 Opportunities Strong Scottish Government support for a demo-scale wood- based biorefinery, using approx 500,000 m3 of wood per year Potential pharmaceutical buyer identified for sugar from a wood source. Sugar from Sitka spruce gave promising results in preliminary trials Two companies interested in building pilot thermochemical biorefineries in Scotland Ineos could provide infrastructure for a biorefinery at Grangemouth: Irvine and two sites in Fife also possible Scottish academic expertise: extractives and lignin technology M.C. Jarvis. SFTT NE Meeting, Finzean Hall, 8 March 2017