2G BIOPIC – Testing a disruptive technology of bioethanol production
The biorefinery proposal 2G BIOPIC has received a 20 million euros support from the 2020 Horizon European Program (Research & Innovation, project n° 657867), out of a 35 million euros total budget. This proposal was submitted for the call for projects “Demonstrating advanced biofuel technologies”. 2G BIOPIC stands for “2nd Generation BIoethanol production based on Organosolv Process at atmospherIc Conditions” and the project aims to demonstrate the performance, the reliability and the sustainability, of the whole value chain of production of bioethanol from agricultural residues and wood. More specifically, the purpose of the project is to design, construct and optimize a second generation demonstration plant with a capacity of 1 ton of biomass/h.
The second generation facility will be based on the scale-up and optimization of a 50 kg/h pilot plan already validated in the framework of the BIOCORE Project (2010-2014). This pilot plant is structured around the CIMV (Project Coordinator) biorefining process. The patented concept proposed consists of cleanly deconstruct lignocellulosic biomass before converting its components into high value products. Thanks to optimized process conditions, the polysaccharides fractions are free from degradation products and inhibitors, allowing a very high ethanol yield using a low amount of enzymes and yeasts. The CIMV technology is characterized by:
- High bioethanol yield per ton of biomass.
- Multi-feedstocks interoperability.
- Production of a high value bio-based co-product: pure lignin (BioligninTM).
The project was officially launched on May 1 and the kick off meeting was held in Brussels on May 27 and 28. The demonstration plant will be built on the “Portes du Tarn” economic and industrial park 20 km from Toulouse. Functional in early 2017, it will process 24 tons of biomass per day and annually produce 700 tons of second generation bioethanol, as well 750 tons of lignine. If the whole technical and economic parameters are validated, the process will be developed to its industrial stage from 2018. The consortium is constituted by 7 partners from 4 European countries:
- CIMV (France): biorefinery technology.
- Dyadic (Netherlands): enzymatic hydrolysis technology.
- Taurus Energy (Sweden): fermentation technology.
- CRITT Bio-Industries (France): fermentation’s industrial transfer.
- Rolkem (France): industrial validation of the Biolignin™ use in phenolic resins.
- Toulouse White Biotechnologies (France): life cycle analysis and energy optimization.
- Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant (Belgium): industrial transfer of hydrolisis.