Responses to DE-FOA-0001615: Request for Information: Cellulosic Sugar and Lignin Production Capabilities
The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is to develop and demonstrate transformative and revolutionary, sustainable bioenergy technologies for a prosperous nation. To facilitate this goal, BETO supports research, development, and demonstration efforts that advance technologies to produce both (a) drop-in biofuels that can replace gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and (b) biomass-based products and chemicals that can compete with their petroleum-derived counterparts and enable biofuels deployment. Many conversion technologies that produce these biofuels or bioproducts utilize cellulosic sugars or lignin in their process. As a result, both lignocellulosic sugars and lignin have become necessary intermediates for advancing research towards economically producing biofuels and bioproducts.
The purpose of this request for information (RFI) was to develop a list of suppliers who are willing and able to produce and sell cellulosic sugar and/or lignin for use by the research community. BETO believes that its funding recipients, as well as the general research community, will use this information to determine what resources are available.
DISCLAIMERS OF LIABILITY AND ENDORSEMENT: The tables below do not constitute an all-inclusive list of cellulosic sugar and lignin suppliers, but rather reflect only submissions in response to the Request for Information (RFI) dated July 20, 2016, issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office, and information subsequently received from suppliers in accordance with the requirements of Additional Submissions below. Neither the United States nor the U.S. Department of Energy, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Moreover, references in the tables to any organization, entity, commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favor by the United States Government or the U.S. Department of Energy.
ADDITIONAL SUBMISSIONS: BETO invites additional submissions to the RFI from cellulosic sugar and lignin suppliers and will periodically update the tables. Please submit additional submissions to this RFI to sugarandlignin@ee.doe.gov. However, please read the full RFI, to see the full list of questions/information requested.
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 |
| Renmatix, Inc. | Kennesaw, Georgia | Woody biomass (hardwood and softwood), agricultural residues (corn stover, palm residues, bagasse), and grasses (switchgrass, miscanthus) | Proprietary two-step process: first, hot water extraction and auto hydrolysis of hemicelluloses to C5/C6 sugars, leaving cellulose and lignin intact; second, a supercritical water process to solubilize the cellulose and hydrolyze to glucose | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | Yes |
| 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 | LignoForce© process—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 |
| Renmatix, Inc. | Kennesaw, Georgia | Woody biomass, agricultural residues (corn stover, palm residues, bagasse), and grasses (switchgrass, miscanthus) | Proprietary two-step process: first, hot water extraction and auto hydrolysis of hemicelluloses to C5/C6 sugars, leaving cellulose and lignin intact; second, a supercritical water process to solubilize the cellulose and hydrolyze to glucose; the lignin is recovered without exposure to acids, ammonia, or enzymes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 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 | Yes |
| 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 |
See the Biofuels Digest’s 2016 Guide to lignocellulosic sugars and their producers.
Web page current as of September 9, 2016.