Speaker: Dr. Junyong Zhu （朱俊勇博士）
USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI, USA
Dept. Biological Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA（美国农业部森林研究所，威斯康星大学生物工程系教授）
Title: Advances in Converting Woody Biomass to Biofuel
Time:9:00am, March17, 2012
Location : State Key Laboratory of Pulppaper Engineering,ROOM 304

Abstract

The concept of producing lignocellulosic biofuel, bioproducts, and chemicals through a biorefinery using lignocelluloses has been around for 70 years or more. Several studies have suggested that biofuel from lignocellulosic biomass can be sustainably produced using modern technologies coupled with sound policies. The United States (U.S.) alone could sustainably produce 1.3 billion tons of biomass annually at some point in the future, 30% of which could come from woody biomass. Woody biomass not only can be sustainable produced in large quantities, but also has several advantages comparing with herbaceous biomass, such as flexible harvesting time eliminated long term storage, high density reduced transportation cost, low ash content reduced dead load in processing. Softwoods have low xylan and acetyl group content which ensures low production of fermentation inhibitors by pretreatment, favorable for bioconversion. However, woody biomass, especially softwood is especially recalcitrant.   

Limited research has been conducted using woody biomass. Only a few research groups around world deal with woody biomass but with limited success. In this presentation, I will outline commercially potential technologies we developed at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory and The University of Wisconsin-Madison in the last several years for converting woody biomass to sugars and biofuel. We have reported excellent ethanol yield of over 270 L/ton from softwood with excellent energy efficiency and net energy output which has not been matched by other research groups. My presentation will focus on using our fundamental understandings on pretreatment, cellulose accessibility, lignin and enzyme interactions, to address practical issues related to commercial applications, such as energy efficiency in pretreatment, high solids enzymatic saccharification and fermentation, water consumption in biorefinery operations, as well as improve enzymatic saccharification efficiencies to reduce enzyme loadings. The results from a series of our publications will be assembled in the presentation. Finally, I will present a complete mass and energy balance for the entire biorefinery operation from our work.