Source: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON submitted to NRP
DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON BIOFUELS AND BIO-BASED CHEMICALS PROCESS LABORATORY
Sponsoring Institution
Other Cooperating Institutions
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
STATE
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0224505
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jan 20, 2010
Project End Date
Jul 19, 2012
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
4333 BROOKLYN AVE NE
SEATTLE,WA 98195
Performing Department
Forest Systems and Bioenergy
Non Technical Summary
We will construct a process laboratory to conduct research on pretreatment of cellulosic biomass for the production of fuels and chemicals. The laboratory will be used to develop optimal pretreatment methods for a range of feedstocks and for production of a wide variety of biorefinery products. Our research will concentrate on mixed biomass feedstocks that will be used by Washington State, and other Pacific Northwest, biorefineries. These feedstocks include agriculture and forest residuals, as well as municipal solid waste. A feature of the research will be development of processes that work well with recalcitrant biomass, such as softwood forest residuals, but that can rapidly change processing conditions to accommodate more easily pretreated biomass, such as agriculture waste (e.g. wheat straw) without production of significant degradation products. This laboratory will also be available to industry for laboratory scale trials to develop new biorefinery processes.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
40353402020100%
Knowledge Area
403 - Waste Disposal, Recycling, and Reuse;

Subject Of Investigation
5340 - Nonfarm structures and related facilities;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
The objective of this research is to construct a research facility that will allow us to develop processes for converting biomass into transportation fuels. Specifically we will design and install the necessary equipment to steam pre-treat biomass such that it can be subsequently hydrolyzed and fermented to produce ethanol or other high value products. The research facility will be flexible such that it can investigate many conversion options for a given biomass feedstock. This laboratory will also be available to industry for laboratory scale trials to develop new biorefinery processes. The expected outcome is a world class laboratory for studying the pretreatment of biomass for the production of fuels and chemicals. The steam gun will be used as part of graduate PhD research projects.
Project Methods
We will purchase and install a steam gun and the ancillary equipment required to use the gun and thoroughly characterize the pretreated biomass product. Ancillary equipment will include a high pressure package boiler, hydrolysis reactors, fermenters, and general laboratory equipment. Some of the funds will be used for room renovations: floor drains, vents, and high voltage electrical lines will be required to accommodate the steam gun and high pressure boiler.

Progress 01/20/10 to 07/19/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The objective of this project was to build a laboratory for doing biofuels pretreatment research. The main piece of equipment to be designed and built is a high pressure steam gun for use in investigating steam explosion pretreatment of biomass. Some ancillary minor equipment was also purchased to support the pretreatment work. Presentations: 1. Bura, R., and Ewanick, S., Effect of biomass moisture content on ethanol yields from steam pretreated hybrid poplar, Bio Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy, Vancouver, Canada, 2012. 2. Bura, R., Ewanick, S., Thompson, W., Gustafson, R., and Marquardt, B., Utilization of Raman spectroscopy to measure in the real time progress of processing lignocellulosics to biofuels and biochemicals, NSERC Bioconversion Network Pretreatment Workshop, Vancouver, Canada, 2012. 3. Bura, R., Vajzovic, A., Biological production of xylitol and ethanol by novel naturally occurring yeast, IGERT PI Meeting, Washington, DC, 2012. The following paper has been submitted for publication: Shannon Ewanick, Wesley J Thompson, Brian J. Marquardt, Renata Bura, "Real-time understanding of lignocellulosic bioethanol fermentation by Raman spectroscopy" submitted to "Biotechnology for Biofuels." PARTICIPANTS: Rick Gustafson, Professor, University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Renata Bura, Associate Professor, University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Sharon L. Doty, Associate Professor, University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. William McKean, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Shannon Ewanick, Graduate Student, University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Azra Vajzovic, Graduate Student, University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Wesley Thompson, Research Scientist/Engineer 3, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory. Brian Marquardt, Research Scientist/Engineer Principal, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory. Kevin Kohlmeier, InDevR, Inc. Aurora Technical Products of Kelowna, British Columbia, built the steam gun. Proctor Sales of Lynnwood, Washington, supplied the boiler. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences include the Department of Energy, other federal agencies, biofuels researchers, private companies, educators, students, and the general public. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The project was extended because purchase of the equipment and fabrication took much longer than anticipated.

Impacts
The laboratory is now complete and fully functional. We are doing research for US Department of Agriculture, part of a $40 million regional CAP grant, Department of Energy through a company Forest Concepts, and for various private companies exploring steam explosion for their pretreatment process. The steam gun has already been instrumental in research that has been published or presented at conferences.

Publications

  • Vajzovic, A., Bura, R., Kohlmeier, K., and Doty L.S. 2012. Novel endophytic yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa strain PTD3 II: production of xylitol and ethanol in the presence of inhibitors, Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology 39 (10) 1453-1463.


Progress 10/01/09 to 10/01/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: A steam gun that will be used to investigate and optimize biomass pretreatment for biofuels production has been designed. Construction of the unit is now commencing with an expected completion date of April 2011. PARTICIPANTS: The main participants at the University of Washington include Professors Richard Gustafson, Renata Bura and William McKean and Research Associate Shannon Ewanick. We have several vendors supplying parts of the steam gun. These include Aurora Technical Products (Kelowna BC) who will be building the steam gun and Proctor Sales (Lynnwood WA) who will be supplying the boiler. Once the steam gun is constructed it will provide a platform for training many graduate students. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences of our research that will use the steam gun will be the biofuels research community. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
An operational steam gun will permit us to develop effective methods to fractionate biomass for production of renewable fuels and chemicals. The steam gun will be used in many on-going and future research projects and will be used in our undergraduate teaching program.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period