Session A6 Biomass Pretreatment and Hydrolysis

Abstract

This year’s session highlighted several exciting advances in the field of pretreatment and hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass. Iogen Corporation (Ottawa, Canada) announced the successful completion of their demonstration plant and first shipment of ethanol. The facility uses wheat straw as its feed source. Other highlights included the announcement by Dr. Guido Zacchl (Lund University, Sweden) that the ribbon will be cut this month at their new bioethanol pilot plant; the capacity will be 2 ton/day of feedstock (primarily softwood residue). Mr. Daniel Schell (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, CO, USA) detailed the production of high sugar streams from pretreating corn stover with dilute acid at the NREL pilot plant. Finally, Mr. David Gregg (University of British Columbia, Canada) and Dr. Henning Jorgensen (Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark) also announced construction of new pilot plants for treatment of softwoods primarily by organosolv, and wheat straw possibly by alkali treatment, respectively. Several trends emerged from these presentations.