A series of ferrocenyl substituted hydrazones (I–VII) derived from ferrocene carboxaldehyde and substituted hydrazides have been prepared and characterized by FTIR, 1H NMR spectroscopy, and crystallographic studies. The single-crystal X-ray analysis for III·0.5H2O·0.5CH3CN (CIF file CCDC no. 1968937) further authenticates the structural motif of the synthesized compounds. The C(11) of ferrocene carboxaldehyde is linked with N(1) of the hydrazide moiety with a bond length of 1.283(5) Å, confirming the binding of the two structural units present in the final product. They were preliminarily screened for their antimicrobial activity and demonstrate good results. The free radical scavenging activity for the compounds (III, IV) has been found to be more than 90% when compared with the ascorbic acid. The total antioxidant capacity and total reducing power assays for VI show significant activity whereas the data for the other compounds are also encouraging. Quantum chemical calculations at the DFT level predict that compound II is the softest while VII is the hardest within the series, resultantly II can be used as a synthon for further chemical reactions.

Mitigating the climate impact from aviation remains one of the tougher challenges in adapting society to fulfill stated climate targets. Long-range aviation cannot be electrified for the foreseeable future and the effects of combusting fuel at high altitude increase the climate impact compared to emissions of green-house gasses only, which further limits the range of sustainable fuel alternatives. We investigate seven different pathways for producing aviation biofuels coupled with either bio-energy carbon capture and storage (BECCS), or bio-energy carbon capture and utilization (BECCU). Both options allow for increased efficiency regarding utilization of feedstock carbon. Our analysis uses process-level carbon- and energy balances, with carbon efficiency, climate impact and levelized cost of production (LCOP) as primary performance indicators. The results show that CCS can achieve a negative carbon footprint for four out of the seven pathways, at a lower cost of GHG reduction than the base process option. Conversely, as a consequence of the electricity-intensive CO2 upgrading process, the CCU option shows less encouraging results with higher production costs, carbon footprints and costs of GHG reduction. Overall, pathways with large amounts of vented CO2, e.g., gasification of black liquor or bark, as well as fermentation of forest residues, reach a low GHG reduction cost for the CCS option. These are also pathways with a larger feedstock and corresponding production potential. Our results enable a differentiated comparison of the suitability of various alternatives for BECCS or BECCU in combination with aviation biofuel production. By quantifying the relative strengths and weaknesses of BECCS and BECCU and by highlighting cost, climate and carbon-efficient pathways, these results can be a source of support for both policymakers and the industry. © 2023 The Author(s)

BECCS from biogas production

Global CO₂ emissions amount to about 40 Gtonnes/year and they need to be rapidly reduced if we are to meet adopted climate targets. To achieve this, a variety of measures is needed, such as more electrification, reduced use of fossil energy, more renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements and CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage). However, this will not be enough, but will also require so-called negative emissions, which means that CO₂ is removed from the atmosphere through, for example, increased afforestation, increased carbon storage in soil (e.g. biochar), or by capturing and storing CO₂ of biogenic origin in geological formations, also known as bio-CCS or BECCS. At global level, the need for negative emissions is estimated to be in the order of several billion tonnes of CO₂ per year if it shall be possible to reach the 1.5-degree target and net zero emissions by 2050. At national level, Sweden’s target is to achieve net zero emissions by 2045 and from then on to be climate positive. This means that territorial emissions from the 1990 level must be reduced by at least 85% by 2045 and that the remaining 15 % will be eliminated by means of so-called supplementary measures including bio-CCS as an important measure.

The need for bio-CCS is significant and the actors who can deliver biogenic CO₂ at the right quality and at low cost will have good business opportunities in an expected future global marketplace for negative emissions. With this project, we have investigated the opportunities CO₂ from biogas production has to contribute to bio-CCS in Sweden. At biogas plants that produce vehicle gas, there is already equipment to separate CO₂ from biogas, so-called upgrading technologies. By modifying and extending this technology, pure liquid CO₂ can be generated. The CO₂ is then transported to terminals in Swedish ports while waiting for transport by ship to the place for permanent storage.

The project has studied gas purification and liquefaction based on the four most common upgrading techniques: water scrubber, PSA (pressure swing adsorption), membrane separation and amine scrubber. The residual gas (the CO₂-rich gas leaving the upgrading equipment) differs between different upgrading technologies, which affects the need for subsequent purification steps. Results from modelling and simulation have led to two proposed technology chains. For amine scrubbers, a simple process of compression, drying and liquefaction is sufficient to achieve the CCS specification of the liquid CO₂. PSA, membranes and water scrubbers require more advanced gas purification including a two-phase separation and recirculation of gases with low dew point, such as O₂ and CH₄. The recirculated gas is recycled to the inlet of the upgrading process, leading to the double benefit of increased amount of valuable CH₄ product and further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. A side effect is that the need for conventional residual gas management is eliminated.

Cost calculations have been carried out for biogas plants with a production capacity of 20, 50 and 120 GWh/year. With an availability of 95% and a CO₂ content of 39% in raw biogas (gas before upgrading), this equates to a CO₂ production of 2,400, 5,900 and 14,200 tons/year, respectively. A starting point for the study has been that systems for large-scale bio-CCS/CCS will be established and that this will lead to the construction of several CO₂ terminals in Swedish ports. Furthermore, it is assumed that these terminals allow third-party access where a supplementary volume of biogenic CO₂ from biogas plants can constitute a portion of the total managed amount. Around each terminal, clusters of biogas plants are estimated to emerge, which each can deliver approximately 20,000–100,000 tons CO₂ per year. The distribution from biogas plants to port terminals may be done by truck transport where the loading capacity amounts to 34 tons of CO₂. After the terminal, CO₂ is transported by ship to the place for permanent storage.

The cost of producing liquid CO₂ from biogas depends on local conditions such as CO₂ flow, O₂ content, upgrading technology, new or existing plant, transport distance to terminal, etc. In order to determine what the cost will be for each individual biogas plant, it is necessary to adapt the calculations to local conditions. Through the project, generic calculations have been carried out which show that large biogas plants have good opportunities to produce liquid CO₂ at competitive costs, but also that there is a strong scaling effect. For example, the cost is about SEK 200–300/tonne CO₂ for new plants with 120 GWh in annual biogas production. With investment support, the cost drops to about SEK 150–200/tonne. For new plants in the intermediate segment (50 GWh/year), the cost is slightly higher, SEK 300–450/tonne (without capital grants) and SEK 190–275/tonne (with capital grants). For smaller plants (20 GWh/year), the cost rises significantly, especially for water scrubbers.

The transport cost up to the terminal is affected by the distance and amount of CO₂ handled. For example, the cost of truck transport from larger biogas plants is about SEK 200/tonne at 100 km one-way to terminal. The total cost of bio-CCS from biogas including terminal handling, ship transport and final storage is affected by many parameters and there are uncertainties in cost estimates along the entire chain. In a calculation example for a biogas plant with membrane upgrading, 100 km of truck transport one way to terminal in Gothenburg and transport and final storage according to Northern Light's concept, the total cost was estimated at SEK 830–1020/tonne CO₂ for larger biogas plants (120 GWh/year).

When the bio-CCS from biogas is introduced, negative emissions arise from two sources, firstly from the final storage itself, which is the main part, and secondly by reducing CH₄ emissions from the upgrading plants, which is a smaller, but not negligible part. The total CO₂ efficiency of the value chain is determined by energy consumption, transport distance, selected storage solution and CH₄ slip before the introduction of bio-CCS. Emissions from truck transport are small in this context. In total, CO₂ efficiency in many cases amounts to close to 100%, i.e. net emissions in the value chain up to final storage are close to zero. For plants that initially had relatively high CH₄ emissions from the upgrading unit, the climate benefit is even greater, with CO₂ efficiency throughout the chain being well over 100%.

A driving hypothesis in the project has been that CO₂ from biogas can be the CO₂ stream in society that is one of the lowest-hanging fruits and that the value chain is well placed to be more cost-effective than other concepts for bio-CCS. Based on the results of the project, we can conclude that the hypothesis is likely to hold. The cost up to the terminal will in many cases likely be lower compared to capture and liquefaction from large point sources. With efficient technology and distribution solutions, biogas producers should be able to contribute to bio-CCS to a fairly large extent, up to about 10% of Sweden's need for negative emissions. For biogas operators, this would mean a broadening of the business where CO₂ is seen as a valuable product which complements the revenues from the production of biomethane. 

Kraft lignin, a by-product from the production of pulp, is currently incinerated in the recovery boiler during the chemical recovery cycle, generating valuable bioenergy and recycling inorganic chemicals to the pulping process operation. Removing lignin from the black liquor or its gasification lowers the recovery boiler load enabling increased pulp production. During the past ten years, lignin separation technologies have emerged and the interest of the research community to valorize this underutilized resource has been invigorated. The aim of this review is to give (1) a dedicated overview of the kraft process with a focus on the lignin, (2) an overview of applications that are being developed, and (3) a techno-economic and life cycle asseeements of value chains from black liquor to different products. Overall, it is anticipated that this effort will inspire further work for developing and using kraft lignin as a commodity raw material for new applications undeniably promoting pivotal global sustainability concerns.

Lignocellulosic biomass is renewable and one of the most abundant sources for the production of high-value chemicals, materials, and fuels. It is of immense importance to develop new efficient technologies for the industrial production of chemicals by utilizing renewable resources. Lignocellulosic biomass can potentially replace fossil-based chemistries. The production of fuel and chemicals from lignin powered by renewable electricity under ambient temperatures and pressures enables a more sustainable way to obtain high-value chemicals. More specifically, in a sustainable biorefinery, it is essential to valorize lignin to enhance biomass transformation technology and increase the overall economy of the process. Strategies regarding electrocatalytic approaches as a way to valorize or depolymerize lignin have attracted significant interest from growing scientific communities over the recent decades. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the electro-catalytic methods for depolymerization of lignocellulosic biomass with an emphasis on untargeted depolymerization as well as the selective and targeted mild synthesis of high-value chemicals. Elec-trocatalytic cleavage of model compounds and further electrochemical upgrading of bio-oils are discussed. Finally, some insights into current challenges and limitations associated with this approach are also summarized. © 2022 by the authors. 

The demand for cheap, healthy, and sustainable alternative protein sources has turned research interest into microbial proteins. Mycoproteins prevail due to their quite balanced amino acid profile, low carbon footprint and high sustainability potential. The goal of this research was to investigate the capability of Pleurotus ostreatus to metabolize the main sugars of agro-industrial side streams, such as aspen wood chips hydrolysate, to produce high-value protein with low cost. Our results indicate that P. ostreatus LGAM 1123 could be cultivated both in a C-6 (glucose)- and C-5(xylose)-sugar-containing medium for mycoprotein production. A mixture of glucose and xylose was found to be ideal for biomass production with high protein content and rich amino acid profile. P. ostreatus LGAM 1123 cultivation in a 4 L stirred-tank bioreactor using aspen hydrolysate was achieved with 25.0 ± 3.4 g L−1 biomass production, 1.8 ± 0.4 d−1 specific growth rate and a protein yield of 54.5 ± 0.5% (g/100 g sugars). PCA analysis of the amino acids revealed a strong correlation between the amino acid composition of the protein produced and the ratios of glucose and xylose in the culture medium. The production of high-nutrient mycoprotein by submerged fermentation of the edible fungus P. ostreatus using agro-industrial hydrolysates is a promising bioprocess in the food and feed industry. © 2023 by the authors.

The subject of lignin structure, critical for fundamental and practical reasons, is addressed in this study that includes a review of the methods applied to elucidate macromolecular branching. The recently available approaches for determination of the absolute molecular mass of spruce milled wood lignin (MWL) along with the quantification of terminal groups clearly indicate that MWL is significantly branched and cross-linked (with ∼36% lignin units partaking in these linkages). Results from independent methods imply that about half of the branching and crosslinking linkages involve aromatic rings, predominantly 5-5′ etherified units; meanwhile, a significant number of linkages are located in the side chains. Quantitative 13C NMR analyses suggest that the branches involve different aliphatic ether (alkyl-O-alkyl) types at the α- and γ-positions of the side chain, with intact β-O-4 linkages. While the exact structures of these moieties require further investigation, our results point to the fact that conventional lignification theory disagrees with the presence of such key moieties in softwood MWL and the observed high degree of branching/crosslinking. Potential reasons for the noted discrepancies are discussed.

Sugar-based biorefineries have faced significant economic challenges. Biorefinery lignins are often classified as low-value products (fuel or low-cost chemical feedstock) mainly due to low lignin purities in the crude material. However, recent research has shown that biorefinery lignins have a great chance of being successfully used as high-value products, which in turn should result in an economy renaissance of the whole biorefinery idea. This critical review summarizes recent developments from our groups, along with the state-of-the-art in the valorization of technical lignins, with the focus on biorefinery lignins. A beneficial synergistic effect of lignin and cellulose mixtures used in different applications (wood adhesives, carbon fiber and nanofibers, thermoplastics) has been demonstrated. This phenomenon causes crude biorefinery lignins, which contain a significant amount of residual crystalline cellulose, to perform superior to high-purity lignins in certain applications. Where previously specific applications required high-purity and/or functionalized lignins with narrow molecular weight distributions, simple green processes for upgrading crude biorefinery lignin are suggested here as an alternative. These approaches can be easily combined with lignin micro-/nanoparticles (LMNP) production. The processes should also be cost-efficient compared to traditional lignin modifications. Biorefinery processes allow much greater flexibility in optimizing the lignin characteristics desirable for specific applications than traditional pulping processes. Such lignin engineering, at the same time, requires an efficient strategy capable of handling large datasets to find correlations between process variables, lignin structures and properties and finally their performance in different applications.

Kraft lignin is an underutilized resource from the pulp and paper industry with the potential of being a key raw material for renewable fuels and chemicals. The separation of high-molecular-weight lignin from black liquor by ultrafiltration has been widely investigated, while the permeate containing low-molecular-weight lignin has received little attention. Nanofiltration can concentrate the low-molecular-weight lignin. This work, therefore, evaluates nanofiltration for the separation and concentration of low-molecular-weight lignin from the ultrafiltration permeate. For this study, eight flat polymeric sheet membranes and one polymeric hollow fiber membrane, with molecular weight cut-offs ranging from 100 to 2000 Da, were tested. A parametric study was conducted at 50 °C, 2.5–35 bar, and crossflow velocity of 0.3–0.5 m/s. At a transmembrane pressure of 35 bar, the best performing membranes were NF090801, with 90% lignin retention and 37 L/m2·h, and SelRO MPF-36, with 84% lignin retention and 72 L/m2·h. The other membranes showed either very high lignin retention with a very low flux or a high flux with retention lower than 80%. Concentration studies were performed with the two selected membranes at conditions (A) 50 °C and 35 bar and (B) 70 °C and 15 bar. The NF090801 membrane had the highest flux and lignin retention during the concentration studies. Overall, it was shown that the nanofiltration process is able to produce a concentrated lignin fraction, which can be either used to produce valuable chemicals or used to make lignin oil.

Carbon fibers (CFs) are gaining increasing importance in lightweight composites, but their high price and reliance on fossil-based raw materials stress the need for renewable and cost-efficient alternatives. Kraft lignin and cellulose are renewable macromolecules available in high quantities, making them interesting candidates for CF production. Dry-jet wet spun precursor fibers (PFs) from a 70/30 w/w blend of softwood kraft lignin (SKL) and fully bleached softwood kraft pulp (KP) were converted into CFs under fixation. The focus was to investigate the effect of carbonization temperature and time on the CF structure and properties. Reducing the carbonization time from 708 to 24 min had no significant impact on the tensile properties. Increasing the carbonization temperature from 600 to 800 °C resulted in a large increase in the carbon content and tensile properties, suggesting that this is a critical region during carbonization of SKL:KP PFs. The highest Young's modulus (77 GPa) was obtained after carbonization at 1600 °C, explained by the gradual transition from amorphous to nanocrystalline graphite observed by Raman spectroscopy. On the other hand, the highest tensile strength (1050 MPa) was achieved at 1000 °C, a decrease being observed thereafter, which may be explained by an increase in radial heterogeneity.

Seafood has an important role to play to achieve a sustainable food system that provides healthy food to a growing world population. Future seafood production will be increasingly reliant on aquaculture where feed innovation is essential to reduce environmental impacts and minimize feed and food competition. This study aimed to investigate whether a novel single cell protein feed ingredient based on Paecilomyces variotii grown on a side stream from the forest industry could improve environmental sustainability of farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) by replacing the soy protein concentrate used today. A Life Cycle Assessment including commonly addressed impacts but also the rarely assessed biodiversity impacts was performed. Furthermore, feeding trials were included for potential effects on fish growth, i.e., an assessment of the environmental impacts for the functional unit ‘kg feed required to produce 1 kg live-weight rainbow trout’. Results showed that the best experimental diet containing P. variotii performed 16–73 % better than the control diet containing soy protein concentrate in all impact categories except for energy demand (21 % higher impact). The largest environmental benefits from replacing soy protein with P. variotii in rainbow trout diets was a 73 % reduction of impact on biodiversity and halved greenhouse gas emissions. The findings have high relevance for the aquaculture industry as the production scale and feed composition was comparable to commercial operations and because the effect on fish growth from inclusion of the novel ingredient in a complete diet was evaluated. The results on biodiversity loss from land use change and exploitation through fishing suggest that fishery can dominate impacts and exclusion thereof can greatly underestimate biodiversity impact. Finally, a novel feed ingredient grown on side streams from the forest industry has potential to add to food security through decreasing the dependence on increasingly scarce agricultural land resources. 

Co-refining of fast pyrolysis bio-oil together with fossil oil in existing refinery infrastructure is an attractive and cost-efficient route to conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to transportation fuel. However, due to large differences in properties between the two oils, special notice is needed to reduce process-related issues. Here, fast pyrolysis bio-oil produced from lignocellulosic biomass was co-refined with vacuum gas oil at a 20:80 weight ratio in continuous operation in a pilot-scale slurry hydrocracker in order to investigate the impact of process parameters on product quality and process performance. Mass balances together with product characterization were used to investigate product yields, product composition, and hydrodeoxygenation. Best conversion and hydrodeoxygenation of the fast pyrolysis bio-oil was achieved using an unsupported catalyst loading of 900 ppm Mo with either a low temperature (410 °C) and long residence time (2 h) or higher temperature (435 °C) and shorter residence time (1 h). These settings resulted in about 94% hydrodeoxygenation but also led to highest yield of biogenic carbon to gas phase (40-43 wt %) and lowest yield of biogenic carbon to oil fractions (53-56 wt %) as well as the water fraction (3-5 wt %). Successfully, coke yield remained low at around 0.07-0.10 wt % for all performed runs, which was comparable to the insoluble particle content in the feed due to the presence of particles in the untreated fast pyrolysis bio-oil. Co-processing pyrolysis oil with fossil oil in a slurry hydrocracker seems to be a robust process with regard to coke formation, which should lead to reduced plugging issues compared to fixed bed hydrotreaters. Although this study gives a brief understanding of the effect of process parameters on the processing of fast pyrolysis bio-oil, further research is required to find optimal process parameters and to fully comprehend the possibilities and limitations for production of transportation fuels from fast pyrolysis bio-oil using this technology.

Kraft lignin is an abundantly available and largely underutilized renewable material with potential for production of biobased fuels and chemicals. This study reports the results of a series of slurry hydroprocessing experiments with the aim of converting solid Kraft lignin to liquid products suitable for downstream refining in more conventional reactors. Experiments reported in this study were conducted by feeding a lignin slurry to an already hot, liquid-filled reactor to provide momentaneous heating of the lignin to the reaction temperature. This modified batch procedure provided superior results compared to the regular batch experiments, likely since unwanted repolymerization and condensation reactions of the lignin during the heating phase was avoided, and was therefore used for most of the experiments reported. Experiments were performed using both an unsupported Mo-sulfide catalyst and Fe-based catalysts (bauxite and hematite) at varied reaction temperatures, pressures, and catalyst loadings. The use of Mo-sulfide (0.1% Mo of the entire feed mass) at 425 °C and 50 bar resulted in complete conversion of the Kraft lignin to nonsolid products. Very high conversions (>95%) could also be achieved with both sulfided bauxite or hematite at the same temperature and pressure, but this required much higher catalyst loadings (6.25% bauxite or 4.3% hematite of the total feed mass), and around 99% conversion could be achieved at higher temperatures but at the expense of much higher gas yields. Although requiring much higher loadings, the results in this study suggest that comparatively nonexpensive Fe-based catalysts may be an attractive alternative for a slurry-based process aimed at the hydroconversion of solid lignin to liquid products. Possible implementation strategies for a slurry-based hydroconversion process are proposed and discussed. © 2022 The Authors.

Integration of renewable raw materials in existing refineries is most likely the shortest way for the successful, large-scale introduction of biofuels in the transport sector in the short term and medium term. One possible renewable raw material for this application is fast pyrolysis bio-oil (FPBO), which in this study has been coprocessed (at 0 and 20 wt %) with vacuum residue (VR, 50 wt %) and vacuum gas oil (VGO, balance) in a continuous, as well as a semibatch, slurry hydrocracking process. Experiments both with and without FPBO were performed at 450°C and 150 bar with a continuous hydrogen flow through the reactor. Oil-soluble molybdenum hexacarbonyl and molybdenum 2-ethylhexanoate were used as catalyst precursors, to be sulfided in situ. The continuous trials resulted in reactor walls completely free of coking, and they resulted in a low overall coke yield (about 1 wt %). The hydrodeoxygenation reached almost 92%, and the total acid number was reduced by nearly 99% in the FPBO experiment A mass balance of the renewable carbon from FPBO, based on the performed experiments, showed that the fossil CO2 emissions can be lowered by 1.35 kg per kg of processed FPBO if all renewable carbon in gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons is used to replace its fossil counterparts, and all methane formed from FPBO is used to produce hydrogen. Semibatch experiments gave less successful results when upgrading FPBO-containing feedstock, with a high coke yield (8 wt %) as well as a high gas yield (24 wt %). The results of this study demonstrate that FPBO can be successfully coprocessed with heavy fossil oils in a continuous slurry hydrocracking process without neg. affecting the processing of the fossil components of the feed and that a continuous process is preferred over batch or semibatch processes when studying coprocessing of bio-oils.

The aim of this study is to present the design, optimization and modelling of a chemical recovery system for a novel CS2-free viscose-type process that entails dissolution of pre-treated dissolving pulp in a continuous-flow reactor in cold alkali and wet spinning of cellulose in sodium carbonate solutions. Technologies already known to other industries for the recovery and reuse of chemicals, such as causticizing, recalcination, recarbonization and freeze-separation, were used. Chemical equilibria simulations were performed with OLI Studio 9.5, with the purpose to select experimental conditions which avoid undesired precipitations in each unit operation. Synthetic solutions mimicking the spent coagulation liquor were used in the laboratorial experiments. The proposed chemical recovery system was shown to be technically feasible and reduce chemical make-ups to a minimum of 45 kg/ton of NaOH and 4 kg/ton of H2SO4. Small amounts of Zn are expected to precipitate during recarbonization of the coagulation liquor at 30 °C and causticizing at 98 °C. Thus, a filter for ZnO particles should be included in the design of the recarbonization unit and a continuous purge of lime mud and input of fresh lime make-up should be needed to keep burnt lime availability at an acceptable level. Overall, the results presented in this study portray a solution to reduce operating costs and the environmental impact of novel viscose-type processes with alkaline spin dopes and wet spinning of cellulose in sodium carbonate solutions. © 2020, The Author(s).

Upscaling lignin-based precursor fibre production is an essential step in developing bio-based carbon fibre from renewable feedstock. The main challenge in upscaling of lignin fibre production by melt spinning is its melt behaviour and rheological properties, which differ from common synthetic polymers used in melt spinning. Here, a new approach in melt spinning of lignin, using a spin carrier system for producing bicomponent fibres, has been introduced. An ethanol extracted lignin fraction from LignoBoost process of commercial softwood kraft black liquor was used as feedstock. After additional heat treatment, melt spinning was performed in a pilot-scale spinning unit. For the first time, biodegradable polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was used as a spin carrier to enable the spinning of lignin by improving the required melt strength. PVA-sheath/lignin-core bicomponent fibres were manufactured. Afterwards, PVA was dissolved by washing with water. Pure lignin fibres were stabilized and carbonized, and tensile properties were measured. The measured properties, tensile modulus of 81.1 ± 3.1 GPa and tensile strength of 1039 ± 197 MPa, are higher than the majority of lignin-based carbon fibres reported in the literature. This new approach can significantly improve the melt spinning of lignin and solve problems related to poor spinnability of lignin and results in the production of high-quality lignin-based carbon fibres. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bio-derived and bioinspired sustainable advanced materials for emerging technologies (part 2)'. © 2021 The Author(s).

The potential of producing biogas by digestion from substrates in Västra Götaland, Halland and Skåne has in this study been estimated to approximately 5 900 GWh per year, of which 2 300 GWh are found in Västra Götaland, 650 GWh in Halland and 3 000 GWh in Skåne. The estimated potential is based on the current amounts of the substrate categories food waste, agricultural residues, manure, sludge from sewage treatment plants and industrial organic residues. For each of the three regions, the largest contributor to the current substrate potential is agricultural residues. This category contributes with approximately 3 900 GWh annually in total for the three regions. However, to be able to fully realize the potential of the agricultural residues there are logistic and technical challenges to be solved. Manure accounts for the second largest contribution to the potential, approximately 1 000 GWh per year for the three regions. The conditions to realize the manure potential are good with national production support in place for this substrate category.

The study also includes a brief investigation of future substrate categories focused on marine substrates, grass and hay harvesting, industrial wastewater and biological methanation. From the future substrates, a contribution of a total of 3 600 GWh per year will be added to the estimated potential for the three regions. The largest addition is potential biological methanation of the carbon dioxide streams from the total substrate potential from the current categories, approximately 3 000 GWh annually. Thereafter, the largest contributing future substrate category is industrial wastewater. Including the future substrate flows, a total biogas potential of 9 500 GWh per year was estimated for Västra Götaland, Skåne and Halland together. To realize the potential, close cooperation between substrate owners, gas producers and municipalities are needed together as well as a long-term policy landscape.

Impregnation with high initial concentration is fast and efficient, leading to a homogeneous delignification in the subsequent cook, resulting in improved screened pulp yield. To obtain high initial alkali concentration, the white liquor flow needs to be significantly increased. The moisture content of the wood chips and the alkali concentration of the white liquor limit the initial alkali concentration of the impregnation liquor that can be reached. It is therefore of interest to evaluate the possibility to implement high alkali impregnation (HAI) industrially and the consequences this would have on the mill system. The effect of HAI on mass and energy balances in a kraft pulp mill has been studied using mill model simulations. The sensitivity to disturbances in important parameters for process control has been compared to impregnation scenarios used industrially. It was shown that high initial alkali concentration can be achieved on industrial scale by increased white liquor flow. HAI has a positive effect on recovery flows and reduces the need for make-up chemicals. The HAI concept is less sensitive to variations in process parameters, such as chip moisture and white liquor concentration, thus diminishing the risk of alkali depletion in chip cores.

A round robin study evaluating the analysis of biomass liquefaction oils (BLOs) from fast pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) was performed, receiving data from 14 laboratories in seven countries in order to assess the current status of analytical techniques for the determination of nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine content in BLOs and to evaluate potential differences in origin (i.e., fast pyrolysis versus HTL). The BLOs were produced from a range of feedstocks including pine, mixed softwoods, forest residues, microalgae, miscanthus, and wheat straw to cover a variety in nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine content and speciation. Nine samples were distributed, comprised of eight separate BLOs and one blind duplicate produced by five producers. The samples were analyzed for water, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine content. No analytical test method was mandated; laboratories were encouraged to utilize whichever method they determined would be most applicable, relying on the existing body of BLO literature as a guide. The results of this round robin study are presented in this paper. The results of the carbon, hydrogen, and water measurements as reference analyses had relative standard deviations (2.9, 3.5, and 5.6%, respectively) that were comparable to those found in past round robin studies on fast pyrolysis bio-oil. The analysis of nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine showed higher levels of variability. Laboratories mostly chose the same method for water, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen determination, whereas there were a variety of methods chosen for sulfur and chlorine determination. The results suggest that specific analytical methods for the determination of nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine should be further refined to ensure reproducible and accurate results for BLO analysis due to their importance in emissions, material selection, and catalyst activity.

The effect of reaction variables on the oxidative ammonolysis of technical lignins was studied in the range of 0.4-0.8 M NH4OH, reaction temperature of 70 - 130°C, oxygen pressure of 0.5 - 1.2 MPa and pH 9- 12.7. The kinetics of nitrogen incorporation consists of two phases, both of which follow a pseudo-first order reaction law. The reaction is 1st and 0.5 order with respect to oxygen and NH4OH concentration, respectively. The effective activation energy of nitrogen incorporation is rather low, 33-43 kJ/mol. The dependence of the reaction rate on pH of the reaction solution goes through a maximum. Linear correlation between nitrogen incorporation and O-demethylation, CO2 formation, oxygen uptake as well as oxygen incorporation were observed. Structural analyses of the soluble N-modified lignins by FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopic techniques showed only qualitative differences of the spectra obtained under different reaction conditions indicating that the reaction conditions do not affect the reaction pathways. A scheme of possible reaction mechanisms is postulated based on the experimental results. 

Microbial community development within an anaerobic trickle bed reactor (TBR) during methanation of syngas (56% H2, 30% CO, 14% CO2) was investigated using three different nutrient media: defined nutrient medium (241 days), diluted digestate from a thermophilic co-digestion plant operating with food waste (200 days) and reject water from dewatered digested sewage sludge at a wastewater treatment plant (220 days). Different TBR operating periods showed slightly different performance that was not clearly linked to the nutrient medium, as all proved suitable for the methanation process. During operation, maximum syngas load was 5.33 L per L packed bed volume (pbv) & day and methane (CH4) production was 1.26 L CH4/Lpbv/d. Microbial community analysis with Illumina Miseq targeting 16S rDNA revealed high relative abundance (20–40%) of several potential syngas and acetate consumers within the genera Sporomusa, Spirochaetaceae, Rikenellaceae and Acetobacterium during the process. These were the dominant taxa except in a period with high flow rate of digestate from the food waste plant. The dominant methanogen in all periods was a member of the genus Methanobacterium, while Methanosarcina was also observed in the carrier community. As in reactor effluent, the dominant bacterial genus in the carrier was Sporomusa. These results show that syngas methanation in TBR can proceed well with different nutrient sources, including undefined medium of different origins. Moreover, the dominant syngas community remained the same over time even when non-sterilised digestates were used as nutrient medium. Key points: •Independent of nutrient source, syngas methanation above 1 L/Lpbv/D was achieved. •Methanobacterium and Sporomusa were dominant genera throughout the process. •Acetate conversion proceeded via both methanogenesis and syntrophic acetate oxidation. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2022, The Author(s).

Test facility for prefabricated storm water treatment devices.

In Sweden, stormwater management has usually implied release of stormwater into the nearest recipient with no concern for either the levels of contaminants in the water or to the sensitivity of the recipient. The demand for sustainable solutions has increased along with more knowledge concerning stormwater toxicity and the harmful effects it can have on the environment in the long term. New technical solutions for stormwater treatment are continuously being presented on the market, however, independent third-party tests have rarely been conducted to verify the function of these solutions. To choose the right technology for a specific application while ensuring the function over an extended period of time, can therefore be complex task for customers. Likewise, the variety of requirements on treatment efficiency makes in challenging for technology suppliers as there is currently no possibility of independent testing of stormwater treatment devices in Sweden to verify this. As a step towards a more sustainable stormwater management, RISE developed a proposal for a national standard for prefabricated treatment devices within a Vinnova-funded project in 2019. Subsequently, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has financed three follow-up projects where this is the latter of the three. The aim for this project has been to answer the remaining questions and create sufficient knowledge to be able to build the test bed in a next step. During the project, a lot of valuable information has been gathered through interviews, dialogues, a workshop and a survey with actors from both the customer side and the supplier side in Sweden and internationally. The design of the test bed has emerged and is based on the proposed standard and the input that has come along the project. A business model has been developed, where different alternatives have been studied. Based on this, ways forward have been discussed. The conclusions of the project can be summarized by the fact that the need for a clearer definition of requirements for stormwater quality and a national standard for third-party tests of stormwater treatment devices is great both from customers and technology suppliers. Based on the dialogues conducted with international actors, it has emerged that several countries (e.g., Germany and the UK) have come further than Sweden in this area and there is much to be gained from continuing the dialogue and cooperate further on these issues. The business model shows that a mobile facility is preferable, as the area of use can then be broadened and revenues for rent can supplement income from standardized tests. However, this means that only smaller facilities can be evaluated in the facility, which several technology providers have been critical of. One possibility that have been discussed within the project is that larger facilities could be evaluated according to a Swedish standard at an established test bed abroad. For standardized tests, the cost estimate is SEK 200,000 towards the customer, to also get coverage for inactive periods. If the investment cost of the test bed can be financed in another way, for example through national grants, depreciation costs are reduced by approximately SEK 10,000 / week, which contributes to reduced costs per test and rental period. This would give more technology providers the opportunity to perform tests, as well as enable an expanded knowledge building, which would benefit the industry as a whole.

There are operating parameters that affect the hydrogen formation from APC-residues generated in waste fired CFB-boilers. There are also reasons to be careful and take extra consideration to safety aspects in environments where the APC-residue has been exposed to water. It is well known that if the APC-residues generated from waste fired CFB-boilers are exposed to water; hydrogen gas is formed. The overall aim of the project has been to decrease the work environment hazards related to hydrogen formation from these APC-residues. Another aim has also been to increase the general knowledge related to these hydrogen related hazards. This has been accomplished by exploring which operating parameters and general mechanisms that affect the hydrogen formation from the APC-residues. Both total amount of gas formed as well as the velocity of the gas formation has been of interest. The APC-residues used in this project have been from P14 and P15 at the waste-to-energy plant Händelöverket, owned and operated by E.ON. In literature there are almost no publications on the hydrogen gas formation from APC residues generated by waste fired CFB boilers. There are some related to waste fired grate boilers though. Conclusions and theories from literature data must be put together from results regarding similar materials in totally different environments. The experimental results indicate a difference in the hydrogen formation from APCresidues originating from P14 and P15. The bed material used in the boilers is also one of the operational parameters that seems to affect the reactivity of the APCresidue. The introduction of a share of Ilmenite in the bed material seems to have lowered the amount of hydrogen gas formed, alternatively it delayed the formation. Other operational conditions that was considered was a decreased thermal load, lowered amount of ammonia added to reduce NOx, and storage/aging of ash in the NID-reactor while it was not running on full capacity. There are indications that these conditions also affect the reactivity, however there are too few data available to make specific conclusions. In general, it seems difficult to control the reactivity of the APC-residue while keeping normal production in the plant. In fouling samples, from different parts of the boilers, levels of metallic aluminium fully comparable to those in the APC-residue were detected. Thus, there is a significant risk of hydrogen formation when using wet cleaning methods during maintenance stops. Proper ventilation and education are two of the recommendations to mitigate the risks. A potential logistic chain for APC-residues, based on ship transports, was risk assessed. Since the hydrogen formation differs greatly between different ash deliveries, an important conclusion was that it is hazardous to generalise the results, especially by using average hydrogen formation rates. Another conclusion was that consideration must be made for the fact that the hydrogen formation might be delayed and might not arise until the APC-residue is treated mechanically

It has recently been shown that pore condensation and freezing (PCF) is a mechanism responsible for ice formation under cirrus cloud conditions. PCF is defined as the condensation of liquid water in narrow capillaries below water saturation due to the inverse Kelvin effect, followed by either heterogeneous or homogeneous nucleation depending on the temperature regime and presence of an ice-nucleating active site. By using sol-gel synthesized silica with well-defined pore diameters, morphology and distinct chemical surface-functionalization, the role of the water-silica contact angle and pore width on PCF is investigated. We find that for the pore diameters (2.2-9.2 nm) and water contact angles (15-78<span classCombining double low line"inline-formula">ĝ</span>) covered in this study, our results reveal that the water contact angle plays an important role in predicting the humidity required for pore filling, while the pore diameter determines the ability of pore water to freeze. For <span classCombining double low line"inline-formula"><i>T</i>>235</span> K and below water saturation, pore diameters and water contact angles were not able to predict the freezing ability of the particles, suggesting an absence of active sites; thus ice nucleation did not proceed via a PCF mechanism. Rather, the ice-nucleating ability of the particles depended solely on chemical functionalization. Therefore, parameterizations for the ice-nucleating abilities of particles in cirrus conditions should differ from parameterizations at mixed-phase clouds conditions. Our results support PCF as the atmospherically relevant ice nucleation mechanism below water saturation when porous surfaces are encountered in the troposphere. © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Paper grade pulp production across the globe is dominated by the kraft process using different lig-nocellulosic raw materials. Delignification is achieved around 90% using different chemical treatments. A bottleneck for complete delignification is the presence of residual covalent bonds that prevail between lignin and carbohydrate even after severe chemical pulping and oxygen delignification steps. Different covalent bonds are present in native wood that sustain drastic pulping conditions. In this study, 100% birch wood was used for producing paper grade pulp, and the lignin carbohydrate bonds were analyzed at different stages of the kraft cook. The lignin carbohydrate bonds that were responsible for residual lignin retention in unbleached pulp were compared and analyzed with the original lignin-carbohydrate complex (LCC) bonds in native birch wood. It was shown that lignin remaining after pulping and oxygen delignification was mainly bound to xylan, whereas the lignin bound to glucomannan was for the most part degraded. Application: One central problem for the pulp and paper industry is efficiency in delignification during the chemical pulping and bleaching processes. It has been believed that one limiting factor is the covalent bonds between lignin and polysaccharides. We present data on presence of such LCC bonds in paper grade birch pulp and its development during the processes. Hopefully, this research data will be useful for the development of more effi-cient processes. 

Reducing the use of fossil fuels is an ongoing and important effort considering the environmental impact and depletion of fossil-based resources. The combination of ablative fast pyrolysis and hydroprocessing is explored as a pathway allowing bio-based intermediates (BioMates) integration in underlying petroleum refineries. The proposed technology is validated in industrially relevant scale, identifying pros and cons towards its commercialization. Straw from wheat, rye and barley was fed to ablative fast pyrolysis rendering Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil (FPBO) as the main product. The FPBO was stabilized via slurry hydroprocessing, rendering a stabilized FPBO (sFPBO) with 49 % reduced oxygen content, 71 % reduced carbonyl content and 49 % reduced Conradson carbon residue. Fixed bed catalytic hydroprocessing of sFPBO resulted in the production of BioMates, a high bio-content product to be co-fed in established refinery units. Compared to the starting biomass, BioMates has 83.6 wt% C content increase, 92.5 wt% O content decrease, 93.0 wt% water content decrease, while the overall technology has 20 wt% conversion yield (32 wt% carbon yield) from biomass to BioMates. © 2022 The Author(s)

Trees constitute promising renewable feedstocks for biorefinery using biochemical conversion, but their recalcitrance restricts their attractiveness for the industry. To obtain trees with reduced recalcitrance, large-scale genetic engineering experiments were performed in hybrid aspen blindly targeting genes expressed during wood formation and 32 lines representing seven constructs were selected for characterization in the field. Here we report phenotypes of five-year old trees considering 49 traits related to growth and wood properties. The best performing construct considering growth and glucose yield in saccharification with acid pretreatment had suppressed expression of the gene encoding an uncharacterized 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase (2OGD). It showed minor changes in wood chemistry but increased nanoporosity and glucose conversion. Suppressed levels of SUCROSE SYNTHASE, (SuSy), CINNAMATE 4-HYDROXYLASE (C4H) and increased levels of GTPase activating protein for ADP-ribosylation factor ZAC led to significant growth reductions and anatomical abnormalities. However, C4H and SuSy constructs greatly improved glucose yields in saccharification without and with pretreatment, respectively. Traits associated with high glucose yields were different for saccharification with and without pretreatment. While carbohydrates, phenolics and tension wood contents positively impacted the yields without pretreatment and growth, lignin content and S/G ratio were negative factors, the yields with pretreatment positively correlated with S lignin and negatively with carbohydrate contents. The genotypes with high glucose yields had increased nanoporosity and mGlcA/Xyl ratio, and some had shorter polymers extractable with subcritical water compared to wild-type. The pilot-scale industrial-like pretreatment of best-performing 2OGD construct confirmed its superior sugar yields, supporting our strategy. © 2023 The Authors. 

Blue Economy is seen as an essential contributor to a sustainable development, and it is an important part of the EU Green Deal. Seaweed plays a key role in the Blue Economy as a source of food, feed, and feedstock for biorefineries. Today, the largest part of global seaweed production is based in Asia, but there is also a growing interest in seaweed production in Europe. However, more knowledge on the environmental impacts is needed to ensure sustainable growth of the sector. Seaweed can be used in biorefineries to produce a variety of products for food and non-food applications. The aim of this paper was to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a seaweed value-chain, including seaweed cultivation and production into sodium alginate, biodegradable materials, biogas, and fertilizer in a biorefinery setting. The LCA included 19 environmental impact categories but focused on climate change. The seaweed Saccharina latissima was cultivated and processed in Ireland. Sodium alginate was then extracted by means of ultrasound-assisted extraction, a novel extraction technology. Cellulosic residues produced after the extraction were used for the production of films used as a packaging material. Residues that remain after the production of the films were sent to anaerobic digestion to achieve a no-waste concept. For seaweed cultivation, fuel use and drying of seaweed biomass were the main environmental hot spots; and for the alginate extraction process, the yield and purification after extraction were the main hot spots. Overall, the results of this paper showed that the seaweed-based biorefinery has the potential to be sustainable, but several improvements are necessary before it is competitive with land-based systems. © 2022 The Authors

The agricultural industry plays a crucial role in transitioning towards a sustainable and fossil-free future. This article explores the potential of biorefineries using biomass from agriculture to reduce emissions and promote self sufficiency. Regarding a concept that integrated anaerobic digestion, grass and legume protein production, and hydrothermal liquefaction. A case study was conducted in the southwestern part of Sweden, involving interviews with a biogas plant and local farmers. The study analyzed the utilization of input goods in agriculture and evaluated the potential of biomass in the area. To assess the potential for farms to become self-sufficient in fuel, protein feed, and plant nutrients. The results show an overall positive outlook of the biorefinery concept. By utilizing 20% of the available biomass in the area can the biorefinery concept annually produce 100 GWh of biogas, 3800 tonnes of grass and legume protein concentrate and 1200 GWh bio-oil. This could theoretically cover 100 % of the need of soy meal, 44% for nitrogen, 50% for phosphorus and 100% for potassium.

This paper reports the first Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model developed for biomass pyrolysis oil spray combustion using Finite-Rate Chemistry (FRC) approach. To make the CFD calculations feasible, a reduced mechanism for modeling the combustion of biomass Fast Pyrolysis Oil (FPO) based on the POLIMI 1412 mechanism and a model for eugenol oxidation was developed. The reduced mechanism consisted of 200 reactions and 71 species. This level of complexity was found to be a good tradeoff between predictive power and computational cost such that the reduced model could be used in CFD modeling. The predictive power of the reduced mechanism was demonstrated via 0D (adiabatic, premixed, constant pressure reactor), 1D (laminar counterflow flame) and 3D (CFD of a methane-air flat-flame piloted FPO spray flame) calculations. Results from CFD were compared against experimental data from non-intrusive optical diagnostics. The reduced model was successfully used in CFD calculations—the computational cost was approximately 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of a simplified model. Using the reduced mechanism, the concentration of pollutants, minor combustion products, and flame radicals could be predicted—this is added capability compared to already existing models. The CFD model using the reduced mechanism showed quantitative predictive power for major combustion products, flame temperature, some pollutants and temperature, and qualitative predictive power for flame radicals and soot. © 2021 The Authors

An important factor in the development of sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) is the use of cheap and sustainable materials. Sodium lignosulfonate, a lignin derivative, is demonstrated here as an attractive, "green", water-soluble, and potentially cost-effective binder for use in hard carbon anodes for SIBs. A comparison of its battery cycling performance is made against other binders including sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and lignin, obtained from the kraft process, as well as sodium alginate, derived from algae. Apart from lignin, which requires processing in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, the other three binders are water-soluble. Lignosulfonate shows comparable or better performance, with high capacity retention and stability, when using 1 M NaPF6 in propylene carbonate or ethylene carbonate:diethyl carbonate electrolytes for both half- and full-cells (against a Prussian white cathode). Further improvements are observed when including styrene-butadiene rubber as a co-binder. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates similar solid electrolyte interphase compositions after the initial sodium insertion for both lignosulfonate and carboxymethyl cellulose binders. However, after subsequent cycling, the surface layer composition and thickness are found to be dependent on the binder. For the lignosulfonate-based electrode, the layer appears thicker but comprises a smaller fraction of carbon-oxygen species. © 2021 The Authors.

Avoiding snow on photovoltaic (PV) installations is motivated for two reasons: to decrease power losses from shading, or to decrease mechanical loads to avoid damage to the PV-installation and the underlying construction. We experimentally investigated the effectiveness and suitability of four different snow removal methods at our facility in the north of Sweden (Piteå, 65°N), throughout three winters. The layout of a PV installation and the underlying roof, together with meteorological conditions and snow characteristics, impact which methods are best suited for snow removal. A simple roof rake with a rectangular toolhead works well when the snowpack is compact and not too thick, whereas a roof rake with a slide works better when the snow is dry and packed. Neither the investigated passive hydrophobic surface coatings, nor the active forward bias electrical heating methods induced shedding of the accumulated snowpack in our experiments without additional intervention. At our test facility in Piteå, the roof rake with a slide was the most effective and user-friendly snow removal. Despite maximum snow loads of approximately 1 kPa, far below the modules’ rating, cell damage was observed for both snow removal groups (except for the slide roof rake group) and the control group.

Different conditions such as module orientation, ground albedo, shading and latitude are known to affect the performance of bifacial photovoltaic modules. We evaluate bifacial performance for one year at a site located at 65°N through comparison of measured and simulated front and back side plane-of-array irradiation. Each investigated module has a different azimuth, tilt, and exposure to shading from the surroundings. Local shading is found to severely impact the energy yield of the site in general, and individual modules to a varying degree depending on their location and orientation. Proper shading analysis appears to be required in the planning phase of a bifacial photovoltaic installation to accurately calculate the expected energy yield. The bifacial gain of the modules with azimuths in the east–west sector is found to span a range from 16 % to approximately the bifaciality factor, depending on the orientation. To fully utilize the potential of bifacial photovoltaics, this variability also needs to be carefully considered when planning and building bifacial photovoltaic installations.

Det finns ett stort intresse att använda halm i bioraffinaderiprocesser för att producera förnybara material, kemikalier och drivmedel, men mängden halm är begränsad och aktuella processer är ofta storskaliga. Målet med detta projekt var att bidra till ökad användning av tillgängliga restströmmar från spannmålsproduktion och därmed bidra till ökad andel inhemsk råvara till den svenska biobaserade industrin. Projektet undersökte tre restströmmar från spannmålsproduktionen: halm, rensverksfraktion (från tröskans rensverk som normalt sprids ut på fältet och inte samlas in) samt avrens från rensmaskiner och aspiratörer på spannmålsmottagningar. Arbetet innefattade att karakterisera olika sorters halm, utvärdera tekniker för att öka insamlingsgraden vid skörd, lagringsförsök samt modellering av leveranssäkerhet och skördestrategier. Ett speciellt fokus var att utvärdera materialet med avseende på biogasproduktion. Den grundläggande karakteriseringen som gjordes av halm och rensverksfraktion från höstvete, korn, havre, höstråg och höstraps visade vissa skillnader i innehåll av cellulosa, hemicellulosa, lignin, oorganiska ämnen samt extraktivämnen, men inga som kunde förklara skillnaderna i metanproduktionen mellan proverna. Råghalm hade den högsta metanproduktionen, medan halm från höstraps hade signifikant lägre metanproduktion än de andra halmsorterna. Metanproduktionen från rensverksfraktionerna visade samma tendens som för halmen. För att försöka hitta förklaringar till den lägre metanproduktionen för halm och rensverksfraktion från höstraps gjordes kompletterande analyser av biomassans struktur och sammansättning. Inga tydliga skillnader i cellullosakristallinitet kunde ses som skulle kunna förklara den lägre biogasproduktionen. De fördjupade analyserna kunde visa att det finns skillnader i ligninstruktur, det skulle dock behöva undersökas vidare om dessa bidrar till skillnaderna i metanproduktionen. En hypotes som inte kunde bekräftas är att höstrapshalmen innehåller glukosinulater som när de bryts ner kan verka hämmande på bakterierna i jäsningsprocessen. Detta behöver utredas vidare i kommande studier. I projektet utvärderades två olika tekniker för att förutom halm även samla in rensverksfraktion och därigenom öka mängden bärgat material. Vid skörd av spannmål samlas kärnan i en tank, medan halmen och övriga överjordiska delar av spannmålsplantan som återstår matas ut efter skördetröskan. Utvärderingen visade att total insamlad mängd biomassa ökade när även rensverksfraktionen samlades in. Även halmbalarnas densitet ökade vid inblandning av rensverksfraktionen i halmen, vilket är fördelaktigt för transporteffektiviteten. Ökningen av insamlad mängd och baldensitet var dock signifikant i endast ett av de två försöken. Mellan 36 % och 41 % av den teoretiskt bärgningsbara mängden biomassa samlades inte in och kan betraktas som förluster i systemet. Vissa av förlusterna går att åtgärda med val av maskiner som är väl anpassade till varandra medan andra kräver ett helt annat skördesystem. Potentialen för utveckling av nya och förbättrade tekniska system som möjliggör att en större andel biomassa kan tillvaratas är därför stor. Tillgången på halm för användning i bioraffinaderier kan även ökas genom att använda halm av olika kvalitet, tex fuktig halm. I tre olika lagringsförsök undersöktes under vilka förutsättningar det finns risk för förluster under aeroba förhållanden. Försöken utvärderades med avseende på effekten på förluster och kvalitet samt metanproduktion. Respirometerförsök genomfördes på halm och rensverksfraktion från höstvete och korn vid två olika vattenaktiviteter (vattenhalter) under ca 2 månader. Resultaten visade att förlusterna hos höstvetehalm troligen kan hållas låga om den lagras vid en vattenhalt under 20-23 %. Kornhalm verkar vara något känsligare och kan behöva vara några procentenheter torrare, medan rensverksfraktionen verkar vara något mer motståndskraftig mot mikrobiell tillväxt. I vetehalm ökade metanpotentialen under lagringen, medan den minskade för halm och rensverksfraktion från korn. Den stora minskningen i metanpotential för kornproverna kan ha orsakats av de högre kvävehalterna och lägre C/N kvot som gynnar mikrobiell aktivitet. Resultaten tyder på att fuktig aerob lagring av vetehalm kan fungera som ett förbehandlingssteg där cellulosanedbrytande mögelsvampar bryter ned cellulosan och därmed gör kolet mer tillgänglig för de metangasproducerande mikroorganismerna. Studien tyder på att denna process går snabbare med kornhalm. Dessa resultat behöver följas upp och fördjupas. Genom att utnyttja lagringstiden till biologisk förbehandling inför användning i bioraffinaderiet kan vi på ett positivt sätt utnyttja faktorer som normalt har negativ inverkan på kvalitet, såsom hög fukthalt och temperatur samt långa lagringstider. I fullskaliga försök som upprepades under två år vid Gasum AB biogasanläggning i Jordberga utvärderades avrenslagring under praktiska förhållande i stora plansilor utan täckning. Lagringsförsöket genomfördes med avrensat material (avrens) från i spannmålshandelns mottagningsanläggningar. Lagringsprocessen övervakades på olika djup genom mätningar av gassammansättning och temperatur och lagringsförlusterna bestämdes. Förlusterna av torrsubstans under lagringen varierade mellan 1,5 och 3 %, dock med undantag från ytprovet år två där förlusterna uppgick till 63 %. De höga förlusterna i ytprovet beror sannolikt på en längre lagringstid i kombination med direkt exponering mot atmosfäriska förhållanden och därmed nederbörd. Detta resulterade i en omfattande tillväxt av mögelsvampar. Metanpotentialen i proverna från ytan var båda åren signifikant lägre (8 % respektive 62 %) än i proverna från inläggningen. Mellan djupare liggande prover fanns ingen signifikant skillnad i metanpotential sinsemellan eller jämfört med inläggningsprovet. Låg vattenhalt, syrefattiga förhållanden och höga temperaturer hämmade mikrobiell tillväxt i djupare liggande prover. Den modelleringsstudie baserad på väderdata som genomfördes med syftet att under-söka hur leveranssäkerheten av halm påverkas av väderleken visade att mängden torr halm som kan bärgas varierar stort mellan år. Andelen av den tillgängliga mängden halm som i genomsnitt över flera år är möjlig att bala (pressningskoefficient) beräknades till 84, 86, 82 och 80 % för Västmanland, Östergötland, Västra Götaland respektive Skåne vid maximalt 18% vattenhalt vid pressning. Den varierade även över skördesäsongen. Den tillgängliga pressningstiden minskade från över 50 % i den andra halvan av juli till under 30 % i de första veckorna i oktober beroende på område. De genomsnittliga andelarna pressad halm varierade för de enskilda grödorna: den var högst för höstvete, ca 90 % för gårdarna belägna i Västmanland, Östergötland och Västra Götaland, och 80 % i Skåne. Andelarna för vårvete var lägst, 67–75 % beroende på område.

Grass-clover ley holds an importance role for a sustainable crop production and is mainly used as feed for ruminants. But ley also contains proteins, if extracted, suitable for monogastric animals such as pigs and poultry. If these proteins are extracted, the degree of self-sufficiency of proteins in Sweden can increase and better resource utilization is achieved. In this study we evaluated the utilization of fresh and ensiled grass-clover ley in a straw-based agricultural biorefinery for producing protein concentrate, ethanol, bio-oil and biogas.

Practical lab scale tests of extraction of high value components for food and feed applications from the liquid fraction after ley pressing were carried out. Pretreatments of the solid fraction prior to ethanol fermentation, bio-oil production using HTL (hydrothermal liquefaction) and biogas production were tested. The system for production and supply of the ley was described and the potential for increased ley production in Sweden was quantified. The environmental and economic efficiency of the proposed biorefinery system was evaluated using environmental systems analysis and technoeconomic assessment.

In terms of system profitability, a high protein yield in the extracted protein concentrate it is important. To achieve that, a thorough pre-treatment using mechanical biomass disintegration before fractioning is crucial. This may need to be done in several steps. Screw pressing is a common technique for fractionating ley into a liquid and solid fraction. Double pressing combined with enzymatic treatments or only water addition during the second pressing stage were found to increase the protein yield compared to single pressing. Second pressing had no effect on the amino acid profile of the protein concentrate.

After pressing fresh ley, heat coagulation or isoelectric precipitation can be used to precipitate protein concentrates in one- or two-step processes to produce protein fractions with different functional properties. Tests showed that it is possible to recover chlorophyll and carotenoids from the ley using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. which is a suitable method for food applications as toxic organic solvents can be avoided. The ensiling process degrades the protein into smaller peptides or free amino acids which makes ensiled grass less suitable for protein recovery by heat coagulation or isoelectric precipitation. Fresh and ensiled timothy and meadow fescue showed a similar amino acid profile as soybeans.

The initial hypothesis that mechanical pressing may disintegrate the lignocellulosic structure of ley sufficiently to produce a sugar stream with a high concentration of sugar for further fermentation by enzymatic hydrolysis was not confirmed. The content of sugars released after the enzymatic hydrolysis was relatively low. The fibre fraction after the mechanical pressing can be suitable for ethanol production if an additional pretreatment method will be incorporated. Fermentation of pressed and steam-exploded ensiled mixed ley showed promising results. The bio-oils produced with the HTL-process were described of high quality, i.e., high carbon content and low ash content. Although, the obtained materials are not directly integrable in today's refineries, the ensiling did not seem to affect the material's potential for biofuel production. The methane potential tests that were carried out in the project of the liquid residual fraction after protein extraction and after the HTL process showed that both can be suitable for methane production, but they showed great behavior differences.

The results from the environmental system analysis showed that extraction of high-quality products from ley, straw and sawdust according to the studied system reduces climate impact (CO2 eq) when the use of ethanol, bio-oil and biogas replaces fossil fuels, protein concentrate replaces soy as feed and carbon dioxide replaces fossil carbon dioxide. At present, the climate impact from extracted protein concentrate is higher than for soybean meal. Grass source for protein extraction followed by ethanol and bio-oil production as an alternative to straw-based ethanol and bio-oil production did not seem to improve the profitability of the studied biorefinery system. Profitability may be improved if protein extraction is performed the whole all year and not seasonal. Higher prices of the extracted protein concentrate may also improve profitability.

The potential for increased grassland cultivation in Sweden for biorefining was estimated at approximately 3.4 million tonnes grass per year. This included incorporating grassland in the crop rotation in grain-dominated areas, intensification of existing grassland cultivation, utilization of fallow and abandoned arable land for grassland cultivation.

Based on the results and the experience acquired from this project, we suggest an extraction plant for grass-clover ley that operates for both fresh and ensiled grassland all year. The plant needs to be supplemented with more advanced technologies such as membrane filtration for the extraction of amino acids from the ensiled ley during the winter season. The protein extraction plants should be located near farms. The extraction plant is also suggested to be located together with a biogas plant to enable co-digesting residual fractions with manure. Thereby, enabling plant nutrients and minerals in digestate to be returned to arable land. Utilizing the solid fiber fraction for biofuel production with fermentation and HTL in large-scale processes remains promising.

AGROinLOG project has tested the integrated biomass logistics centres (IBLC) concept in three real agro-industries in Europe. The relevance of the IBLC strategy relies on the fact that it allows agro-industries to create a new activity with lower investment, increasing incomes, stabilizing their annual activity (avoiding idle periods) and maintaining or creating new jobs. The demos’ studies were performed in Spain at a fodder industry, in Greece at an olive oil industry, and in Sweden inside a cereal processing industry. AGROinLOG validated these demos´ business models from a holistic perspective, also studying the replicability of the IBLC business model in other agro-industries from different sectors (vegetable oil extraction, olive oil chain, feed & fodder, wine, grain chain and sugar industry). Sectorial analysis was carried out as well, allowing the identification of opportunities among the targeted sector to replicate the IBLC concept, drawing barriers to overcome in each case. Thus, technical, economic and environmental feasibility of integrated biomass logistics centers (IBLCs) for food and non-food products have been assessed in detail. 

Lightweight gates of high-strength steel for improved worker safety and cattle handling This report presents the work with developing a lightweight gate of high-strength steel for the handling of cattle. The project was conducted as a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project. The project group consisted of co-workers from the unit of Agriculture and Horticulture and the unit of Process and Environmental Engineering at Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE Jordbruk och trädgård och RISE Kretsloppsteknik), Parsteel AB (former Nilssons Plåtindustri AB), SSAB EMEA AB, Sophie Atkinson at Smart Animal Handling, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Skara and the cattle farmer Lars Olsson. The main objectives of the project were to develop a lightweight gate weighing at least 50% less and being three times as strong as a traditional gate for cattle handling. The main motive was to improve the ergonomic conditions and working environment for the animal handlers. Additionally, for the safety of both animals and handlers, the gate must withstand the loads from cattle. Other objectives were to design and construct a gate that does not exceed the price of a high-quality gate and not contribute to increased negative environmental impact. A lightweight gate can be made of various materials such as plastic, fiberglass or steel. Regarding the project group's participants and their competencies, in addition to the numerous requirements placed on a lightweight gate, the choice fell on high-strength steel. High-strength steel is characterized by having high yield strengths, up to 1300 MPa, in comparison with traditional construction steel with yield strength of 355 MPa. For the specific lightweight gate, steel pipes with a yield strength of approximately 750 MPa were chosen. These pipes are mainly used in the automotive and engine industry, where high demands are placed on strength while at the same time a light construction is desired. The gate itself was designed during the project and several details were examined and developed in regard to functionality and safety for both cattle and handlers. The work environment legislation states that gates must be dimensioned and anchored so that the animals cannot break out (AFS 2008:17). The gates must also not pose a risk of injury to the cattle. In order to work safely with cattle, knowledge of cattle behavior is essential and consequently the report contains a chapter describing cattle senses and behavior. Both the lightweight gates and the handling system, built up by the gates, must be adapted to the cattle. In the project, the bud box handling system was tested. The handling system was originally developed to make use of the behavioral characteristics of cattle to encourage forward movement in the desired direction. In the project the handling system's functionality and safety, by using lightweight gates and additional equipment and components, were further designed. The handling system was tested in two groups of heifers at the SLU Götala Beef and Lamb Research Centre. The lightweight gates were also tested in a dairy herd and a beef herd, while hoof trimming, and at a small-scale abattoir. Generally, the light weight of the gates was considered an advantage as the handling of the gates is simplified also resulting in more frequent use of the gates, increasing safety for both animals and humans. During the project, several strength tests were performed by building unique test rigs. In one test rig, the weld of the pipes of the lightweight gate was tested. In another test rig, the strength of lightweight gates, compared with traditional gates on the market, were tested. The outcome of the tests confirmed the original aim of the project, a lightweight gate made of high-strength steel, about 50% lighter and at least three times as strong as traditional gates, had been developed and designed during the project period.

The project’s objective is to assess whether flexible bio-based power generation can be an effective and profitable technology option for balancing power system with large amounts of weather dependent production (wind and sun). It includes an analysis which estimates the potential income levels that can be gained by different types of bio-based power plants from selling electricity products and determines if the extra cost of having a combined heat and power (CHP) plant instead of having a heat only (HO) plant is worth investing.

The project's subgoals, how they have been addressed and some follow-up directions are presented below:

Subgoal 1: Increased knowledge about revenues that can be gained by different technology solutions from selling electricity in different markets, e.g., day-ahead and balancing markets (also called manual frequency restoration reserve market – mFRR market).A model has been developed to estimate the profits that can be made by district heating owners on day-ahead and balancing (mFRR) markets. The model has been applied in two case studies using historical price data for 2019: one using Borås Energi och Miljö’s (BEM) district heating system and one using Vattenfall’s system in Nyköping. In both cases, the results show an increase in profits when participating in balancing markets. This increase is, however, very small compared to the profits made by only participating in day-ahead markets (less than 0.1% increase in overall profits).

Subgoal 2: Increased knowledge about investment and operating costs (CAPEX/OPEX) of different bio-based technologies, both HO and CHP plants. A literature survey was done to identify comprehensive sources of costs. Two reports were identified as relevant sources: [1] and [2]. The first one dates from 2014 and the second one from 2019. They provide a wide-ranging collection of investment and operation and maintenance costs for units of different sizes and types.

Subgoal 3: Increased knowledge about the market conditions needed to justify the extra cost of building a bio-based CHP plant instead of a bio-based HO plant. Two investment case studies have been performed using BEM’s system to compare investment in CHP and HO units. The previous model has been used to evaluate the profits from participating in the day-ahead electricity market for three representative years: 2019, 2030 and 2040. Price conditions for 2030 and 2040 were obtained from Svenska kraftnät’s long-term market analysis [3]. The investment and O&M costs of the new units were obtained from [1] and [2]. The first investment study investigates an investment in new units for redundancy purposes (to ensure sufficient production capacity in case the largest unit is unexpectedly out of operation). The investment results show that profits from selling heat and electricity are not enough to cover the investment and O&M costs. The economic losses are smaller when going for the HO option. The second investment study investigates an investment in base-load units (units meant to run most of the time). In this case, both CHP and HO plants are profitable but the HO plant achieve a higher profitability.

Subgoal 4: Increased knowledge about the financial risks and uncertainties in such an investment.This was achieved through discussing the results with the industry partners and identifying aspects that could be further investigated in a follow-up project. The lifetime of new investment is around 25 years. Many sources of uncertainties enter the evaluation of the financial indicators. Among these, the most relevant ones that could be further investigated are: assumptions on the underlying heat demand (colder and warmer years), assumptions on future electricity prices, assumptions on the price for green certificates and purpose of an investment (an investment for redundancy purposes may not recover its costs but is still needed – how to value redundancy?). Many other input parameters to the investment studies - such as O&M costs, fuel prices and discount rate - may also play a role in the results. A thorough sensitivity analysis would shed more light on the magnitude of each one and could be included in a follow-up project.

This work investigates the impact of high-temperature corrosion behavior of the newly developed FeCrAl alloy Kanthal® EF101 bulk material and weld overlay coating in the presence of KCl(g)/KCl(s) at 600 °C. The oxide scale formed within the secondary corrosion regime after exposure and the impact of alloy microstructure on corrosion behavior was investigated using scanning transmission electron microscopy. The findings indicated the key microstructural differences is the alloy grain size which influences the formation of a protective scale. In addition, It is indicated that coating exhibited inferior performance than the bulk material, primarily attributed to the microstructural differences. © 2023 The Author(s)

This study compares several forest biomass-based biofuels and some electrofuels, for use in cars and trucks, in terms of economic and climate performance and resource efficiency from a Swedish perspective. Both dropin fuels possible to blend in conventional fuels and single molecule fuels requiring new vehicles and infrastructure are included. Mature costs for feedstock, production, distribution, and vehicles are included. There is no clear winner between drop-in and single-molecular fuels when considering both costs, GHG emissions and resource efficiency, neither for cars nor trucks. For trucks, both single-molecular fuels in the form of methanol and DME (dimethyl ether) and drop-in fuels in the form of diesel based on lignin and from hydropyrolysis perform best (given a process designed to reach high GHG performance). For cars drop-in fuels such as petrol produced from lignin or hydropyrolysis perform well, closely followed by the single molecular fuels methanol, DME and methane and some of the other drop-in fuels. For cars, where electrification is progressing fast, it is reasonable to apply the drop-in fuel strategy. For trucks, either continue with the drop-in fuel strategy or, due to uncertainties linked to new fuel production processes, invest in single molecule fuels such as methanol and DME.

The potential future role of different biofuels, hydrogen, and so-called electrofuels/power-to-X (produced by electricity, water, and carbon dioxide, CO2) in different transportation sectors remains uncertain. The CO2 abatement cost, i.e., the cost for reducing a certain amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is central from a societal and business perspective, the latter specifically in the case of an emission reduction obligation system (like in Germany and Sweden). The abatement cost of a specific fuel value chain depends on the production cost and the GHG reduction provided by the fuel. This paper analyses the CO2 abatement costs for different types of biofuels, biomass-based jet fuels and electrofuels for road transport and aviation, relevant for the Swedish and EU context. Since most assessed alternative fuel pathways achieve substantial GHG emission reduction compared to fossil fuels, the fuel production cost is, in general, more important to achieve a low CO2 abatement cost. The estimated CO2 abatement cost ranges from -0.37 to 4.03 SEK/kgCO2 equivalent. Fuels based on waste feedstock, have a relatively low CO2 abatement cost. Fuel pathways based on electricity or electricity and biomass have relatively high CO2 abatement cost. The CO2 abatement cost for lignocellulosic based pathways generally ends up in between. 

The potential future role of different biofuels, hydrogen, and so-called electrofuels/power-to-X (produced by electricity, water, and carbon dioxide, CO2) in different transportation sectors remains uncertain. The CO2 abatement cost, i.e., the cost for reducing a certain amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is central from a societal and business perspective, the latter specifically in the case of an emission reduction obligation system (like in Germany and Sweden). The abatement cost of a specific fuel value chain depends on the production cost and the GHG reduction provided by the fuel. This paper analyses the CO2 abatement costs for different types of biofuels, biomass-based jet fuels and electrofuels for road transport and aviation, relevant for the Swedish and EU context. Since most assessed alternative fuel pathways achieve substantial GHG emission reduction compared to fossil fuels, the fuel production cost is, in general, more important to achieve a low CO2 abatement cost. The estimated CO2 abatement cost ranges from -0.37 to 4.03 SEK/kgCO2 equivalent. Fuels based on waste feedstock, have a relatively low CO2 abatement cost. Fuel pathways based on electricity or electricity and biomass have relatively high CO2 abatement cost. The CO2 abatement cost for lignocellulosic based pathways generally ends up in between.

Biorefineries provide opportunities to improve the economic, environmental, and social performance of bio-based production systems. Prudent planning of plant configuration and localization is however of great merit to obtain maximum benefits from biorefineries. This study investigates optimal deployment of palm oil-based biorefineries on the two major islands of Indonesia, Sumatra and Kalimantan. In addition, the results of the optimal bioenergy (bioelectricity, biodiesel, ethanol) production are used to calculate the potential contribution of the palm oil industry according to the national bioenergy targets from 2020 to 2030. This work also offers a new perspective of analyzing the role of bioenergy in the palm oil industry in relation to meeting the bioenergy targets through the development of spatially explicit optimization model, BeWhere Indonesia. Results show that the palm oil-based biorefineries in Sumatra and Kalimantan can produce 1–1.25 GW of electricity, 4.6–12.5 bL of biodiesel, and 2.8–4.8 bL of ethanol in 2030. Significant efforts in terms of mobilization of resources and economic instruments are required to harness the full potential offered by the palm oil-based biorefineries. This study provides an important insight on how palm oil biorefineries can be developed for their enhanced roles in meeting global sustainability efforts.

The introduction of alkali catalyst during hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) improves conversion and allows the aqueous liquid product to be used as gasification feedstock. This study investigates the effect of reaction temperature (240–300°C), sawdust mass fraction (9.1–25%) and reaction time (0–60 min) during K2CO3-catalytic HTL of pine sawdust. The highest biomass conversion (75.2% carbon conversion and 83.0% mass conversion) was achieved at a reaction temperature of 270°C, 9.1% sawdust mass fraction and 30 min reaction time; meanwhile, the maximum aqueous product (AP) yield (69.0% carbon yield and 73.5% mass yield) was found at a reaction temperature of 300°C, 9.1% sawdust mass fraction and 60 min reaction time. Based on the main experimental results, models for carbon and mass yields of the products were developed according to face-centered central composite design using response surface methodology. Biomass conversion and product yields had a positive correlation with reaction temperature and reaction time, while they had an inverse correlation with sawdust mass fraction. Further investigation of the effects of biomass/water and biomass/K2CO3 ratios revealed that both high water loading and high K2CO3 loading enhanced conversion and AP yield.

Agricultural biomasses and residues can play an important role in the global bioenergy system but their potential is limited by the risk of several ash-related problems such as deposit formation, slagging, and particle emissions during their thermal conversion. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the ash transformation reactions is required for this type of fuels. The present work investigates ash transformation reactions and the release of critical ash-forming elements with a special focus on K and P during the single-pellet gasification of different types of agricultural biomass fuels, namely, poplar, grass, and wheat grain residues. Each fuel was gasified as a single pellet at three different temperatures (600, 800, and 950 °C) in a Macro-TGA reactor. The residues from different stages of fuel conversion were collected to study the gradual ash transformation. Characterization of the residual char and ash was performed employing SEM-EDS, XRD, and ICP with the support of thermodynamic equilibrium calculations (TECs). The results showed that the K and P present in the fuels were primarily found in the residual char and ash in all cases for all studied fuels. While the main part of the K release occurred during the char conversion stage, the main part of the P release occurred during the devolatilization stage. The highest releases – less than 18% of P and 35% of K – were observed at the highest studied temperature for all fuels. These elements were present in the residual ashes as K2Ca(CO3)2 and Ca5(PO4)3OH for poplar; K-Ca-rich silicates and phosphosilicates in mainly amorphous ash for grass; and an amorphous phase rich in K-Mg-phosphates for wheat grain residues. © 2021 The Author(s)

Progress towards ecosystem-based fisheries management calls for useful tools to prioritize actions. To select suitable methods for local circumstances, evaluating approaches used in other jurisdictions can be a cost-effective first step. We tested Productivity Susceptibility Analysis (PSA) to assess the potential vulnerability of the marine fish community in the Skagerrak-Kattegat (Eastern North Sea) to possible interactions with all Swedish fisheries operating in the area. This analysis combines attributes for a species productivity with attributes related to the susceptibility to capture to quantify a single score for vulnerability: high, medium, or low risk. Results indicate that demersal trawl and gillnet fisheries were associated with the highest risk levels if interaction occurs, i.e. having the highest prevalence of species with potentially high vulnerability to the fisheries. Mixed results were seen when comparing the assessment results with available data. The main benefit of utilizing PSA in the area is the comprehensiveness of the assessment, including data-deficient fisheries and species. Drawbacks include potential overestimation of actual risks. Overall, together with available data, PSA in the studied area provides a comprehensive map of potential risks for further actions and may progress a science-based, precautionary management of the area.

Inhibitors formed during pretreatment impair lignocellulose bioconversion by making enzymatic saccharification and microbial fermentation less efficient, but conditioning of slurries and hydrolysates can improve fermentability and sometimes also enzymatic digestibility. Conditioning of pretreated softwood using four industrial reducing agents (sodium sulfite, sodium dithionite, sodium borohydride, and hydrogen) was compared with standard methods, such as overliming and treatment with activated charcoal. A dosage of approx. 1 mM sulfur oxyanion (sulfite or dithionite) per percent water-insoluble solids (WIS) in the slurry was found to result in good fermentability. Treatment of 10–20% WIS slurries with 15 mM sulfur oxyanion under mild reaction conditions (23°C, pH 5.5) resulted in sulfonation of the solid phase and saccharification improvements of 18–24% for dithionite and 13–16% for sulfite. Among the different conditioning methods studied, treatment of slurries with sodium sulfite was superior with respect to cost-efficient improvement of fermentability. Treatments of slurry or pretreatment liquid with 15 mM sulfite or dithionite resulted in 58–76% reduction of the content of formaldehyde. The comparison indicates that conditioning of pretreated biomass using sulfur oxyanions warrants further attention. 

Conditioning of lignocellulosic hydrolysates with sulfur oxyanions, such as dithionite, is one of the most potent methods to improve the fermentability by counteracting effects of inhibitory by-products generated during hydrothermal pretreatment under acidic conditions. The effects of pH, treatment temperature, and dithionite dosage were explored in experiments with softwood hydrolysates, sodium dithionite, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. Treatments with dithionite at pH 5.5 or 8.5 gave similar results with regard to ethanol productivity and yield on initial glucose, and both were always at least ~20% higher than for treatment at pH 2.5. Experiments in the dithionite concentration range 5.0–12.5 mM and the temperature range 23–110◦ C indicated that treatment at around 75◦ C and using intermediate dithionite dosage was the best option (p ≤ 0.05). The investigation indicates that selection of the optimal temperature and dithionite dosage offers great benefits for the efficient fermentation of hydrolysates from lignin-rich biomass, such as softwood residues. © 2021 by the authors. 

As fossil-reliant industries turn to sustainable biomass for energy and material supply, the competition for biogenic carbon is expected to intensify. Using process level carbon and energy balance models, this paper shows how the capture of residual CO2 in conjunction with either permanent storage (CCS) or biofuel production (CCU) benefits fourteen largely residue-based biofuel production pathways. With a few noteworthy exceptions, most pathways have low carbon utilization efficiencies (30–40%) without CCS/U. CCS can double these numbers and deliver negative emission biofuels with GHG footprints below −50 g CO2 eq./MJ for several pathways. Compared to CCS with no revenue from CO2 sequestration, CCU can offer the same efficiency gains at roughly two-third the biofuel production cost (e.g., 99 EUR/MWh vs. 162 EUR/MWh) but the GHG reduction relative to fossil fuels is significantly smaller (18 g CO2 eq./MJ vs. −99 g CO2 eq./MJ). From a combined carbon, cost and climate perspective, although commercial pathways deliver the cheapest biofuels, it is the emerging pathways that provide large-scale carbon-efficient GHG reductions. There is thus some tension between alternatives that are societally best and those that are economically most interesting for investors. Biofuel pathways vent CO2 in both concentrated and dilute streams Capturing both provides the best environomic outcomes. Existing pathways that can deliver low-cost GHG reductions but generate relatively small quantities of CO2 are unlikely to be able to finance the transport infrastructure required for transformative bio-CCS deployment. CCS and CCU are accordingly important tools for simultaneously reducing biogenic carbon wastage and GHG emissions, but to unlock their full benefits in a cost-effective manner, emerging biofuel technology based on the gasification and hydrotreatment of forest residues need to be commercially deployed imminently. Copyright © 2022 Jafri, Ahlström, Furusjö, Harvey, Pettersson, Svensson and Wetterlund.

Drop-in biofuels from forest by-products such as black liquor can help deliver deep reductions in transport greenhouse gas emissions by replacing fossil fuels in our vehicle fleet. Black liquor is produced at pulp mills that can increase their pulping capacity by upgrading some of it to drop-in biofuels but this is not well-studied. We evaluate the techno-economic and greenhouse gas performance of five drop-in biofuel pathways based on BL lignin separation with hydrotreatment or black liquor gasification with catalytic synthesis. We also assess how integrated biofuel production impacts different types of pulp mills and a petroleum refinery by using energy and material balances assembled from experimental data supplemented by expert input. Our results indicate that drop-in biofuels from black liquor part-streams can be produced for ~80 EUR2017/MWh, which puts black liquor on the same footing (or better) as comparable forest residue-based alternatives. The best pathways in both production routes have comparable costs and their principal biofuel products (petrol for black liquor gasification and diesel for lignin hydrotreatment) complement each other. All pathways surpass European Union's sustainability criteria for greenhouse gas savings from new plants. Supplementing black liquor with pyrolysis oil or electrolysis hydrogen can improve biofuel production potentials and feedstock diversity, but better economic performance does not accompany these benefits. Fossil hydrogen represents the cheaper option for lignin hydrotreatment by some margin, but greenhouse gas savings from renewable hydrogen are nearly twice as great. Research on lignin upgrading in industrial conditions is recommended for reducing the presently significant performance uncertainties. © 2020 The Authors