20 Feature

Filtration+Separation November/December 2019

Chemical production

Turning wood into

green bioproducts
he process of using crude oil to produce petroleum can
T negatively affect the environment. One biotechnology
research company has developed a biomass fractionation
process using waste wood and low-cost ionic fluids to
produce sustainable bioproducts for the industry.

Chrysalix Technologies has created the
BioFlex process, a pre-treatment tech-
nology for lignocellulosic biomass which
uses waste wood and agricultural
by-products as well as sustainably grown
biomass instead of crude oil for the
large-scale production of bio-derived
materials, chemicals, heat and electricity.
economy, converting the waste of today
into the raw materials of tomorrow, to
develop the BioFlex process using previ-
ously unrecycled waste wood. The
process can be used with any kind of
woody material including forestry resi-
dues, waste construction wood, energy
crops and agricultural residues.
cellulosic biomass has the potential to
be used as feedstock for the sustainable
and carbon-neutral production of fuels,
materials and chemicals. To realise this
potential, cost-effective fractionation of
the biomass in different product streams
is necessary.

In the EU and US, around 100 million Role of ionic liquids

tonnes of waste wood remain unrecy-
cled every year, which represents a huge
economic loss and an untapped
resource. Chrysalix Technologies decided
to employ the principles of a circular
The BioFlex process is a pre-treatment
technology for lignocellulosic biomass which
uses waste wood.
Producing biofuels
Lignocellulose, for example, grasses and
trees, is made from three biopolymers,
namely lignin, a heterogeneous polymer
containing aromatic subunits, cellulose,
a highly crystalline form of polymeric
glucose, and hemicellulose, an amor-
phous polymer consisting of a mixture
of pentoses and hexoses. Together these
three components account for around
90% of the dry weight of biomass.
Lignocellulosic biomass is a plentiful and
freely available raw material used in the
production of biofuels. It contains up to
70% of carbohydrates, but the composi-
tion varies depending on species, plant
tissue and growth conditions and stage.
Lignocellulosic biomass can be split into
three types, namely softwoods, hard-
woods and grasses, which all differ not
only in their carbohydrate content but
also in the composition of their substruc-
tures, lignin and hemicellulose.
A biorefinery, comparable to a petroleum
refinery, produces fuel, heat, electricity
and/or chemicals from biomass. Ligno-
In the patented ionoSolv technology, a
specially designed ionic liquid, which is
inexpensive and recyclable, separates the
wood into two main streams: cellulose
and lignin. These can be used as a
starting material for the large-scale
production of renewable materials, fuels
and chemicals.
The ionic liquids also have the capability
to extract heavy metals from the wood,
which means that the BioFlex process
can condition unwanted, metal contami-
nated waste wood into a raw material to
produce sustainable and inexpensive
bio-derived products and generate value
from waste.
Ionic liquids are organic salts with
melting points below 100°C. They have
a wide range of applications, from their
use as solvents and catalysts in organic
reactions, electrochemistry or the pre-
treatment of biomass for biofuel produc-
tion to CO2 capture and as sensors. They
are used because of their positive prop-
erties, such as low vapour pressure and
wide liquid range, recyclability and their

www.filtsep.com

Filtration+Separation November/December 2019
The main products from the BioFlex process are cellulose and lignin for use in a more sustainable
chemical industry.
flexibility to adapt their properties to
each different application.
Nevertheless, their synthesis and purifica-
tion are often challenging and expensive,
which undermines the frequency of their
application on an industrial scale.
Recently, less expensive and more easily
synthesised protic ionic liquids (PILs)
have gained increased attention, espe-
cially for biomass applications but also in
electrochemistry.
The ionoSolv technology aims for partial
dissolution of the lignocellulosic biomass.
During ionoSolv processing, the lignin
and hemicellulose are partly or fully
dissolved, leading to a cellulose-rich
material which is recovered. Lignin can
be precipitated from the ionic liquid
solution by adding more water as an
anti-solvent. The excess water can later
be removed through evaporation, recon-
stituting the ionic liquid for its next use.
Bioflex benefits
The Bioflex process can be used with
any kind of woody material, including
softwoods and is compatible with metal
and organic contaminants such as paint
and preservatives. The process can take
place at near ambient pressure, at
temperatures below 200°C and there are
no harmful emissions as ionic liquids
have low vapour pressure.
Applications
The main products extracted from the
BioFlex process are cellulose and lignin,
which can be used for a more sustain-
able chemical industry. The cellulose
produced has high purity levels and can
be used for paper, dissolving pulp and
nanocellulose applications. The Bioflex
lignin is virtually sulphur-free and can be
used in PFA resins. By-products such as
furfural and acetic acid, which are both
widely used in the chemical industry,
can also be isolated.
The first scale-up work was carried out at
the Biorenewable Development Centre
(BDC) in York, UK. The BDC scaled-up the
ionoSolv process to a 3kg scale,
pretreating construction waste wood
where 300g of milled biomass was pre-
treated with a mixture of ionic liquid and
water. Due to good results, the process
was then scaled-up to 20 kg at the same
(l to r) Agnieszka Brandt-Talbot, Jason Hallett and Florence Gschwend of Chrysalix Technologies.
Feature 21
facility where 2 kg of milled biomass was
pre-treated in the same way.
Following the BDC trials, the Bio Base
Europe pilot plant in Ghent was commis-
sioned to conduct two further scale-up
tests at the 200 L scale. For these tests,
spruce sawdust was used as the
feedstock.
A 500 L glass lined pressure reactor was
used as the vessel. It was demonstrated
that the cellulose pulp could be sepa-
rated from the liquid fraction by a
chamber filter press. The lignin separa-
tion was carried out by continuous
centrifugation.
Future plans
Chrysalix Technologies’ plans for the
future consist of designing and building
a pilot plant and establishing the
required value chains followed by
rigorous testing and optimisation at the
pilot level (ca. 200 tonnes per year). This
will allow for the design and construc-
tion of an industrial demonstration plant
(ca. 30,000 tonnes per year). The
company is currently in the process of
raising the necessary funds to start
construction on their BioFlex pilot plant.
The company’s research is detailed in
the article ‘Recent advances in the
Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass’,
published in the Elsevier journal, 'Current
Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chem-
istry', Wei-Chien Tu, Jason P. Hallett,
25 July 2019.
•
www.chrysalixtechnologies.com
www.filtsep.com