Conly Hansen
Utah State University, USA
Title: Biological breakdown of lignocellulose to produce renewable energy
Biography
Biography: Conly Hansen
Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundantly available raw material on the Earth for the production of biofuels. The conversion of lignocellulose into renewable energy and more valuable chemicals has been limited. Several methods for increasing the conversion of lignocellulose into biogas by pretreating the feedstock have been developed, but all of the existing methods have large economic penalties, e.g. disposal of toxic wastes and greatly increased capital and operating costs. The discovery and characterization of Caldicellulosiruptor microbes, extremophilic organisms capable of solubilizing lignocellulose, suggested a possible solution to the economic problem of pretreatment. For example, researchers (Blumer-Schuette et al., 2014) have found that up to 90% of the biomass in switchgrass could be solubilized by C. bescii, thus providing proof of concept.
Beginning in 2014, recognizing the potential for anaerobic digestion of lignocellulose for biogas production, a multidisciplinary team including a biochemist, chemist, microbiologist and agricultural engineer, from Brigham Young and Utah State Universities has been conducting experiments to determine if we could break down other lignocellulose feedstocks for later anaerobic digestion. Our experimental results have been very encouraging in providing proof of concept that anaerobic digestion of lignocellulose, something that has never been done in a commercially viable way, may be both possible and attainable. However, the commercialization and scaling up of lab experiments is not simply a process of buying bigger tanks but requires cross-discipline expertise in order to overcome the inevitable differences between 20-1000 mL lab experimentation and a multiple m3 system. This presentation will report the results of work we have done to take the process from the lab to the market; the hurdles to scaling and commercializing the anaerobic digestion of lignocellulose in an economically viable way.