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VTT launches large European cooperation project for developing manufacturing method for biofuel
19.08.2009
Raw-material for liquid biofuel from agricultural and forestry waste
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has started a large European project, combining the forces of European research institutes and companies for developing the next generation of biofuel. The NEMO project, which has received funding of EUR 5.9 million from the EU, is aimed at developing manufacturing methods for liquid biofuel from agricultural and forestry waste, such as straws and wood chips.
Agricultural and forestry waste is mainly lignocellulose, which consists of
sugars but in a form that makes them difficult to be used by microbes in the
production of ethanol. The project develops enzymes that can be used to cut
lignocellulose into sugar compounds suitable for fermentation. The objective
is also to tailor the metabolism of microbes so that they can produce large
volumes of ethanol out of the biomass sugars economically and efficiently. The
project evaluates the suitability of the developed enzymes and yeast strains
for industrial biofuel manufacturing processes.
The NEMO
project (Novel high performance enzymes and micro-organisms for conversion of
lignocellulosic biomass to bioethanol) will last four years, and develops the
next, 2nd generation production technology for the utilisation of
lignocellulose raw material in the production of ethanol. The cost-effective
production of the next generation biofuel requires the technology to be
developed further.
Currently, nearly all biofuel is produced
using the 1st generation technology, which is mainly based on the use of
sucrose contained in sugarcane or starch-based glucose contained in corn as
raw material. Apart from the sugarcane, the current production methods are not
energy efficient enough and their impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions
is not sufficient.
The production of ethanol consists of four
stages: the pre-processing of the raw material, the conversion of
carbohydrates from polymers into sugar, the fermentation of sugar into ethanol
using microbes and the distillation of ethanol. Different technologies are
being globally developed for pre-processing the raw material. The NEMO project
focuses on the pre-processing methods, hydrolysing cellulose using enzymes and
the fermentation of the created sugars using tailored microbes.
According
to the project coordinator Merja Penttilä, Research Professor at VTT, yeasts
are excellent production organisms, suitable for large scale industrial
production. Using enzymes, sugars can be released gently from the
lignocellulose so that the sugar solution is not too toxic to microbes.
Liquid
biofuels need to contain carbon, which is obtained from renewable raw
materials, i.e. biomass. This carbon is turned into the chemical compound
ethanol and mixed within traffic fuel. In practice, fermentation is the most
efficient method for manufacturing bioethanol.
In the
project, VTT focuses on the development of efficient enzymes and yeast
production organisms.
The EU has set a recommendation for
its member states with the aim of replacing 5.75% of traffic fuel with
biofuels by 2010 and a mandatory target of 10% renewable energy sources in
traffic by 2020. As a result, it is necessary to develop new technology for
securing the environmentally friendly and cost-effective production of
bioethanol.
The total costs of the four-year NEMO project
amount to EUR 8.2 million. The EU is financing the project with EUR 5.9
million.
The NEMO project coordinated by VTT has
participants from a number of European research institutes and industrial
producers of enzymes, ethanol and chemicals. The NEMO project members are: VTT
(Finland), Lunds Universitet (Sweden), University of Helsinki, Universiteit
Utrecht (the Netherlands), VIB (Belgium), Chalmers Tekniska Högskola Ab
(Sweden), Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main (Germany),
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland), Universite de la
Mediterranee D’aix-Marseille (France), Universita Degli Studi di Milano
(Italy), Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (the Netherlands),
Univerza V Ljubljani (Slovenia), Chemtex Italia srl (Italy), Dyadic Nederland
BV (the Netherlands), Green Sugar GmbH (Germany), Sekab E-Technology (Sweden),
Syngenta Crop Protection AG (Switzerland) and Roal Oy (Finland).