(U.S. Department of Energy) The results of the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office’s (BETO’s) Cellulosic Sugar and Lignin Production Capabilities Request for Information (RFI) are now available on the RFI responses web page. This new web page is a resource that lists suppliers who responded to the RFI and are willing and able to produce and sell cellulosic sugar and/or lignin for use by the research community. Once on the web page, interested parties may click on links to obtain full results.
Over the past several years, organizations have begun producing cellulosic sugar and/or lignin. However, it was not clear how many of these organizations were willing and able to sell these cellulosic sugars and lignin to research, development, and deployment (RD&D) end-users who would upgrade the cellulosic sugars and lignin to biofuels and bioproducts. BETO recognized that to fully support RD&D efforts to advance technologies using cellulosic sugars or lignin, it would be beneficial to compile and disseminate information on the availability of these substrates for the industry. This web page attempts to address that issue and fill that gap in information.
Please note that BETO has modified the RFI so it will remain open indefinitely in order to keep the capabilities current. Responses to the RFI may be submitted to sugarandlignin@ee.doe.gov. BETO will update the posting on the RFI responses web page periodically with new responses. READ MORE
SUMMARY OF CELLULOSIC SUGAR RESPONSES
Click on the name of the organization for the full response. Responses are ordered alphabetically.
| ORGANIZATION | LOCATION | FEEDSTOCKS | PROCESS | CAPACITY/QUANTITY (SEE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION INCLUDING INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY/QUANTITY, PURITY, AND COMPOSITION) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~GRAMS | ~KILOGRAMS | ~METRIC TONS | ||||
| American Process Inc. | Alpena, Michigan | Mixed hardwood | Steam explosion, evaporation, hydrolysis, neutralization, and clarification | Yes | Yes | No |
| American Science and Technology Corporation | Wausau, Wisconsin | Hardwood, softwood, and agricultural wastes | Organosolv, hydrolysis, centrifugation, and granulated activated carbon | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AVAPCO LLC | Thomaston, Georgia | Softwood (Southern Pine), mixed hardwood chips, agricultural residues | Fractionation (sulfur dioxide and ethanol), hydrolysis, conditioning, and clarification | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Borregaard | Sarpsborg, Norway | Softwood, hardwood, and annual crops | Proprietary sulfite-based pretreatment, and enzymatic hydrolysis | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Clariant Corporation | Des Moines, Iowa | Agricultural resides such as corn stover, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse and straw, barley straw, and rice straw | Chemical-free steam explosion pre-treatment, and enzymatic hydrolysis using proprietary enzymes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ek Laboratories, LLC | Longwood, Florida | 29 itemized grassy and woody crops | Hydrolysis with solid catalyst | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ethanol Technologies Limited | Dungog, New South Wales, Australia | Sugar cane bagasse, softwood (radiata pine) | Concentrated sulfuric acid hydrolysis | Yes | Yes | No |
| FPInnovations | Point-Claire, Quebec, Canada | Hardwoods | Proprietary TMP-Bio, including pretreatment stage combining mechanical action and mild chemical treatment | Yes | Yes | No |
| Glydia Biotech LLC | Athens, Georgia | Corn stover, wheat straw, switchgrass, sugarcane bagasse, rice straw, forage sorghum | Ammonia fiber expansion pretreatment, and commercial enzymes | Yes | Yes | No |
| GranBio | Sao Paulo, Brazil | Sugarcane residue | Hydrothermal pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis | No | Yes | No |
| ICM | St. Joseph, Missouri | Cellulosic corn kernel fiber, switchgrass, energy sorghum, corn stover, bagasse, wood chips | Patent pending dilute acid pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and filter press | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Iowa State University | Ames, Iowa | Woody biomass (e.g., red oak and pine) and herbaceous feedstock (e.g., corn stover and switchgrass) | Autothermal bubbling fluidized bed pyrolysis; sugars concentrated using evaporation or reduced to glucose and xylose using acid hydrolysis | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Berkeley, California | Switchgrass, corn stover, eucalyptus, bagasse, loblolly pine, energy cane, wheat straw, municipal solid waste blends, cyanobacteria consortia, microalgae | Technology agnostic and limited only by reactor configuration; can utilize a range of catalysts suspended in an aqueous phase for pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis | Yes | Yes | No |
| Leaf Resources Ltd. | Darra, Queensland, Australia | U.S. mixed southern hardwood, eucalyptus, bagasse, empty fruit bunch | Not specified | Yes | Yes | No |
| National Renewable Energy Laboratory | Golden, Colorado | Any lignocellulosic biomass and presorted municipal solid waste lignocellulosic material | Pretreatment at elevated temperatures using acid or caustic catalyst or autohydrolysis; enzymatic hydrolysis on whole pretreated slurry or on washed pretreated solids after removing residual liquor; if acid pretreatment, then hemicellulosic sugars may be recovered prior to hydrolysis; enzymatic hydrolysis using readily available enzyme cocktails; deacetylation and mechanical refining are optional pretreatments | Yes | Yes | No |
| SAPPI North America | Westbrook, Maine | Hardwoods including eucalyptus, aspen, and maple | Pre-hydrolysis kraft process | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sweetwater Energy, Inc. | Rochester, New York | 44 itemized hardwoods, softwoods, and grasses | Proprietary thermomechanical enzymatic hydrolysis | Yes | Yes | No |
| University of Florida | Perry, Florida | Not specified | Pretreatment and liquefaction | Yes | Yes | No |
| University of Maine | Orono, Maine | Softwood and hardwood, including unbleached kraft pulp, woodchips, and sawdust | Kraft pulping process and enzymatic hydrolysis | No | Yes | Yes |
| ZeaChem Inc. | Lakewood, Colorado | Hardwoods, softwoods, corn stover, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, energy cane, bana grass, and sugar beets | Andritz digester capable of steam explosion, auto hydrolysis, dilute acid hydrolysis, sulfite processes, and enzymatic saccharifications | No | Yes | No |
SUMMARY OF LIGNIN RESPONSES
Click on the name of the organization for the full response. Responses are ordered alphabetically.
| ORGANIZATION | LOCATION | FEEDSTOCKS | PROCESS | CAPACITY/QUANTITY (SEE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION INCLUDING INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY/QUANTITY, PURITY, AND COMPOSITION) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~GRAMS | ~KILOGRAMS | ~METRIC TONS | ||||
| American Science and Technology Corporation | Wausau, Wisconsin | Hardwood, softwood, and agricultural wastes such as corn straw, wheat straw, and tobacco stalk | Proprietary Organosolv fractionation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AVAPCO LLC | Thomaston, Georgia | Softwood (Southern pine), mixed hardwood chips, agricultural residues | Fractionation (sulfur dioxide and ethanol), hydrolysis, conditioning, clarification; lignin undergoes minimal condensation reaction | Yes | Yes | No |
| Borregaard | Sarpsborg, Norway | Softwood, hardwood | Sulfite pulping | Confidential | ||
| Clariant Corporation | Des Moines, Iowa | Agricultural resides such as corn stover, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse and straw, barley straw, rice straw, and others | Chemical-free steam explosion pre-treatment, and enzymatic hydrolysis using proprietary enzymes; following solid-liquid separation after hydrolysis, lignin is obtained as side-stream | No | Yes | Yes |
| DuPont | Nevada, Iowa | Corn stover, other biomass | Dilute ammonia and steam pre-treatment | Confidential | ||
| Ek Laboratories, LLC | Longwood, Florida | 29 itemized grassy and woody crops | Byproduct of cellulose-to-sugar milling (hydrolysis with solid catalyst), and separated by taking advantage of difference in polarity with catalyst and other biomass | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ethanol Technologies Ltd | Dungog, New South Wales, Australia | Sugarcane bagasse, softwood (radiata pine), or others | Concentrated sulfuric acid hydrolysis | No | Yes | No |
| FPInnovations | Point-Claire, Quebec, Canada | Hardwood | Proprietary TMP-Bio, including pretreatment stage combining mechanical action and mild chemical treatment | Yes | Yes | No |
| FPInnovations | Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada | North American softwood and hardwood, primarily pine/spruce or aspen | Precipitation from kraft black liquor by CO2 acidification after oxidation, followed by washing with sulfuric acid | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Glydia Biotech LLC | Athens, Georgia | Corn stover, switchgrass, poplar wood, wheat straw, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse | Ammonium fiber expansion pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis | Yes | Yes | No |
| GranBio | Sao Paulo, Brazil | Sugarcane residue | Hydrothermal pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis | No | Yes | No |
| ICM | St. Joseph, Missouri | Cellulosic corn kernel fiber, switchgrass, energy sorghum, corn stover, bagasse, wood chips | Dilute acid pretreatment process, slurry flash, enzymatic hydrolysis, filter press | No | Yes | Yes |
| Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Berkeley, California | Switchgrass, corn stover, eucalyptus, bagasse, loblolly pine, energy cane, wheat straw, municipal solid waste blends with lignocellulosic feedstocks | Technology agnostic and limited only by reactor configuration; can utilize a range of catalysts suspended in an aqueous phase for pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis | Yes | Yes | No |
| Leaf Resources Ltd. | Darra, Queensland, Australia | U.S. mixed southern hardwood, eucalyptus, bagasse, empty fruit bunch | Acid catalyzed glycerol solvent pretreatment | Yes | Yes | No |
| National Renewable Energy Laboratory | Golden, Colorado | Any biomass | After pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass, solid lignin is solubilized with a dilute caustic solution at elevated temperature, and recovered by pressing and/or filtrating | No | Yes | Yes |
| SAPPI North America | Westbrook, Maine | Eucalyptus, aspen, and maple hardwoods | Neutral sulfite semi-chemical pulping, or kraft process | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sweetwater Energy, Inc. | Rochester, New York | Several hardwoods, softwoods, and grasses, including miscanthus and sorghum, and wastes such as palm fronds and banana peels | Thermomechanical enzymatic hydrolysis | No | Yes | No |
| University of Florida | Perry, Florida | Not specified | Not specified | Yes | Yes | No |
| University of Maine | Orono, Maine | Wood, straw, any lignocellulosic material | Organosolv, kraft, dilute formic acid | Yes | No | No |
| ZeaChem Inc. | Lakewood, Colorado | Hardwoods, softwoods, corn stover, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, energy cane, bana grass, sugar beets | Andritz digester capable of steam explosion, auto hydrolysis, dilute acid hydrolysis, and sulfite processes, combined with enzymatic saccharifications | No | Yes | No |
Web page current as of September 9, 2016.