The Development of a Wood-based Materials-biorefinery

Tuve Mattsson; S. Azhar; Susanna Eriksson; Mikaela Helander; Gunnar Henriksson; Kerstin Jedvert; Martin Lawoko; M. E. Lindstrom; Lauren S McKee; Petri Oinonen; Olena Sevastyanova; Niklas Westerberg; Hans Theliander

The Development of a Wood-based Materials-biorefinery
Journal article, 2017

Several different methods for the extraction, separation, and purification of wood constituents were combined in this work as a unified process with the purpose of achieving a high overall efficiency of material extraction and utilization. This study aimed to present a laboratory-scale demonstrator biorefinery that illustrated how the different wood constituents could be separated from the wood matrix for later use in the production of new bio-based materials and chemicals by combining several approaches. This study builds on several publications and ongoing activities within the Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC) in Sweden on the theme "From wood to material components." Combining the approaches developed in these WWSC projects - including mild steam explosion, membrane and chromatographic separation, enzymatic treatment and leaching, ionic liquid extraction, and fractionation together with Kraft pulping - formed an outline for a complete materials-biorefinery. The process steps involved were tested as integral steps in a linked process. The scale of operations ranged from the kilogram-scale to the gram-scale. The feasibility and efficiency of these process steps in a biorefinery system were assessed, based on the data, beginning with whole wood.

Biorefinery

Separation

Demonstrator

Wood components

Author

Tuve Mattsson

Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC)

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chemical Technology, Forest Products and Chemical Engineering

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