PROETHANOL2G PROJECT
FOCUS ON THE EFFECTIVE
INTEGRATION AND
DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGIES THROUGH THE
COMBINED USE OF BIOLOGY
AND ENGINEERING FOR
THE PRODUCTION OF
SECOND GENERATION
(2G) BIOETHANOL,
FROM THE MOST
REPRESENTATIVES EUROPEAN
(WHEAT STRAW) AND BRAZILIAN
(SUGARCANE BAGASSE AND
STRAW) FEEDSTOCKS.
PROETHANOL2G - Integration of Biology and Engineering
into an Economical and Energy-Efficient 2G Bioethanol Biorefinery (FP7-251151)
FP7-ENERGY-2009-BRAZIL | Collaborative project
ABOUT
PROETHANOL2G
The European Union has set a 10%
mandatory target for the share of
renewables (including biofuels) in the
transportation sector by 2020. To
achieve this goal, the deployment
of sustainable biofuels from
lignocellulosic biomass in Europe is
mandatory and urgent in order to
prevent further competition between
food vs. energy of the current first-generation biofuels already in the
market. This new generation of
biofuels still needs intensive efforts
on R&D to fulfill significant GHG
reductions in the production chain
and to represent an alternative to
food-crops derived fuels. Additionally,
the use of agricultural residues,
industrial or domestic wastes will
improve significantly the
environmental performance of 2G
biofuels.
The effective combination of
pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis
and fermentation using adapted and
robust strains displaying new
phenotype features, is a clear
objective of this proposal since is the
key to the economic viability of
lignocellulosic ethanol production.
At t h e e n d o f t h e p ro j e c t ,
PROETHANOL2G aims to get a
meaningful technological process
integration of:
ProEthanol2G bases its conceptual 2G
bioethanol biorefinery on the IBUS
technology, originally developed by
Børge Holm Christensen (HOLM), and
presently operating at INBICON’s
demo plant in Kalundborg, Denmark.
i)
For Europe: energy-efficient
production of bioethanol and
electricity from 100% of wheat
straw.
ii) For Brazil: energy-efficient
production of bioethanol, sugar
and electricity from 100% of
sugarcane crop, including
bagasse and straw.
ProEthanol2G is an European
Collaborative Project under the
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
within the theme “ENERGY.2009.3.2.3:
Second Generation Biofuels - EU-Brazil
Coordinated Call”.
The project focus on the
effective integration and
development of advanced
technologies through the
combined use of Biology and
Engineering for the production
of second generation (2G)
bioethanol, from the most
representatives European
(wheat straw) and Brazilian
(sugarcane bagasse and straw)
feedstocks.
The research activities are
concentrated in the following areas:
i) Feedstock pretreatment
ii) Bioconversion technologies for
second generation bioethanol
iii) Low-temperature distillation
iv) Conversion technologies (using
the bioprocess-derived materials) for
electricity and other added-value
materials (e.g. lignin-based products
v) Full process integration and
sustainability assessment
BioElectrochemical
System (BES)
Value Added Products
Workpackages
The European ProEthanol2G Project
is organized in eight Work Packages
(WPs):
WP1 - Project Management
WP2 - Feedstock thermochemical
pretreatments
WP3 - Biomass conversion technologies
for 2G bioethanol
WP4 - Novel low temperature distillation
process for 2G bioethanol and enzyme
recovery
WP5 - Conversion technologies for
bioprocess materials
WP6 - Integrated assessment of natural
resources value chains
WP7 - Sustainability, Impacts and
Feasibility
WP8 - Dissemination activities focused
on EU and Brazil
WP3 - Biomass Conversion
technologies for 2G bioethanol
// Leader: ULUND
WP3 has two main objectives:
1) to reduce enzyme costs through
the coordinated research carried out
by the Brazilian Consor tium.
2) to obtain novel robust microbial
factories for efficient fermentation of
hexoses and pentoses by selecting
industrially relevant phenotypes
through metabolic engineering,
breeding and/or evolutionar y
engineering; strain improvement
work is based on hydrolysates
obtained from feedstock pre treatment.
The new developed strains are
integrated in simultaneous
saccharification and co-fermentation
of pentoses and hexoses.
Partners involved: LNEG, DTU, ULUND,
CIEMAT, INBICON
Technologies for upgrading and
economic use of solid residues
(lignins) and process wastewaters are
being developed.
Partners involved: LNEG, UGent, GV
WP6 - Integrated assessment
// Leader: EPFL
The RTD Work Packages include:
WP2 - Feedstock thermochemical
pretreatments // Leader: DTU
The main goal is to develop pretreatment processes (with focus in
hydrothermal treatments) for the
production of easily accessible
cellulosic fibres for enzymatic
hydrolysis (and ethanol fermentation),
with high yields of water-soluble
polymeric hemicellulose's
components and low fermentation
inhibitors.
The substrates to be investigated are
wheat straw and sugar cane
bagasse/straw.
At lab scale the following new
approaches are investigated:
1) hydrothermal pretreatment using the
mini-IBUS
2) novel strategies of biomass
deconstruction (ionic liquids and
supercritical fluids)
Demonstration activities through large
scale experiments are carried out by
Inbicon A/S.
All pre-treated biomass is assessed by
enzymatic hydrolysis and SSF assays at
standard conditions.
Partners involved: LNEG, DTU, INBICON
WP4 - Low temperature distillation
process // Leader: HOLM
The main objective is to introduce a
novel vacuum distillation system
working at low temperatures in the
stripper to allow the recovery of active
enzymes.
Also, ProEthanol2G has realistic plans
for the implementation of the novel
distillation system in Brazil.
Partners involved: LNEG, INBICON,
HOLM
WP5 - Conversion technologies for
bioprocess materials // Leader: LNEG
This WP aims to contribute for 100%
utilization of plant feedstock with the
most cost and energy efficient 2G
bioethanol biorefinery minimizing
CO2 emissions.
The aim of this WP is to value the
feedstock from a biorefinery point of
view.
Data from previous WPs will generate
engineering flow charts, and the most
consistent mix of biorefinery products
(2G bioethanol and co-products) is
assessed by optimizing the value of
natural resources such as biomass,
feedstock, water and energy subject
to economic, social and environment
constraints.
Pa r t n e r s i nvo l ve d : I N B I CO N ,
FRAUNHOFER, EPFL
WP7 - Sustainability, Impacts and
Feasibility // Leaders: FRAUNHOFER
WP7 deals with the sustainability
assessment of 2G Bioethanol Biorefinery
(incl. by- or co-products and energy)
operating with wheat straw and sugarcane
crop.The whole process chains (cultivation,
fertilisation, harvesting, transport,
transformation) are considered and
their impac t on sustainable
development is evaluated.
Overviews on the sustainability of the
bioethanol production will be elaborated.
The assessment is integrative, therefore
including social, economic and ecological
aspects.
Par tners involved: INBICON,
FRAUNHOFER, EPFL, HOLM
LNEG - Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, I.P
Francisco Gírio // [email protected]
DTU - Danmarks Tekniske Universitet
Zsófia Kádár // [email protected]
ULUND - Lunds Universitet
Marie-Françoise Gorwa-Grauslund // [email protected]
CIEMAT - Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas
Mercedes Ballesteros Perdices // [email protected]
INBICON - Inbicon A/S
Hanne Risbjerg Sørensen // [email protected]
FRAUNHOFER - Fraunhofer UMSICHT
Markus Hiebel // [email protected]
UGENT - Universiteit Gent
Korneel Rabaey // [email protected]
GV - Greenvalue SA
Jairo H. Lora // [email protected]
EPFL - École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
Edgard Gnansounou // [email protected]
HOLM - Holm Christensen Biosystemer APS
Børge Holm Christensen // [email protected]
The Brazilian Consortium includes the following institutions:
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Coordinator of Brazilian Consortium
Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia (INT)
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE)
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC)
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Universidade Regional de Blumenau (FURB)
BIOMM Technology (BIOMM)
Instituto Virtual Internacional de Mudanças Globais, COPPE/UFRJ (IVIG)
Blue Sugars Corp. (Blue Sugars)
Brazilian Project Coordinator: Elba Bon // [email protected]
COORDINATOR
LNEG - Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, I.P.
Unidade de Bioenergia
Estrada do Paço do Lumiar 22
1649-038 Lisboa // Portugal
[email protected]
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Francisco Gírio
Tel: + 351 210924721 // [email protected]
www.proethanol2g.org
ASSISTANT PROJECT COORDINATOR
César Fonseca
Tel: + 351 210924717 // [email protected]