VASP - Value Added Sugar Plattform

Under denne siste perioden har vi fortsatt undersøkelsen av hvordan vi nøyaktig kan overvåke og kontrollere hydrolyseprosessen ved hjelp av forskjellige sensorer og analyseteknikker. Vi har også avsluttet den siste Biorefinery Demo kampanjen som vi har utført sammen med våre akademiske samarbeidspartnere, NMBU og Universitetet i Lund. Et manuskript med resultatene fra denne kampanjen er sendt inn i løpet av 2019 og er under evaluering. I 2019 har vi også startet en ny pilotkampanje der vi ser på isolasjon av spesialsukker fra et råstoff som inneholder hemicellulose. Denne kampanjen har flere formål: 1) Produsere flere hundre kilo produkt; 2) Identifisere begrensninger i prosessen; 3) Undersøke robustheten til prosessen. Parallelt med dette har vi fortsatt arbeidet med å forstå regulatoriske aspekter tilknyttet produksjon og salg av spesialsukker fra hemicellulose.

The overall goal of the project was to reduce processing costs and improve value creation for the BALI concept, thus generating a basis for an investment decision on establishing a full scale plant. The knowledge yielded during the project has improved both the reaction rate and the final product yield, contributing to significant cost reductions in a future full scale process. A 2nd pilot campaign aiming for the isolation of a special sugar from a hemi-cellulosic feed material was executed. Several hundred kilos of product were produced, in-depth knowledge about process limitations were acquired and the process robustness was assessed. A deeper understanding of the regulatory aspects concerning special sugars from hemicellulose has been acquired in parallel.

The BALI concept is a state of the art biorefinery process developed by Borregaard for the concomitant production of value added performance chemicals from lignin and lignocellulosic (LC) hydrolysates containing sugar. The underlying idea of the current application is to improve the value creation of the BALI concept by 1.optimizing critical process steps of the BALI concept, 2.improving the purity of the LC hydrolysates to best-in-class level, 3.creating tailor-made sugar feedstocks for downstream valorization processes, and 4.develop selected attractive high value sugar based end products. This approach is needed because producing ethanol has become less attractive and is a challenging business concept for the time being anywhere in the world. The BALI concept has a particularly good competitive position to exploit the sugars for production of biochemicals given the value creation on the lignin. The primary objective of the project is to reduce processing costs and improve value creation for the BALI concept to a level where it will be profitable and competitive, thus generating a basis for an investment decision on establishing a full scale plant. The main objectives are to reduce cost of sugar hydrolysates and enzymes compared to state of the art. Further goals are to establish acceptance and preference for the new qualities of BALI sugars developed in this project with a range of leading industries. Scientific methods needed to solve this will be enzyme technology, chemical engineering and a range of modern purification methods. 1 PhD and one post doc is planned, and collaboration with 2 Universities and 1 technology supplier is included. A long list of associated industry partners will be involved without being formal partners of the project.