INDUSTRIAL 37

BIOTECHNOLOGY

BIOREFINERY
P R O C E S S E C O N O M I C S

Gregory M. Bohlmann, With oil and natural gas prices surging,

SRI Consulting bio-based feedstocks are becoming
increasingly competitive. This article
examines, in depth, the technical and
economic aspects of the biorefinery concept.

A
dvanced biorefineries are envisioned to
serve as the foundation of a new bioindus- 10
try. By exploiting new chemical, biological
8
and mechanical technologies, they offer the prom- Cost, $/unit Natural Gas,
6 $/thousand ft3
ise of greatly expanding the use of renewable
plant-based materials, as well as a means of transi- Crude Oil, $/ft3
4
tioning to a more energy efficient and environmen- Corn, $/bushel
2
tally sustainable chemical and energy economy.
The term “biorefinery” has been coined to 0
describe future processing complexes that will use 95 97 99 01 03 05
19 19 19 20 20 20
renewable agricultural residues, plant-based starch
and other lignocellulosic materials as feedstocks to
produce a wide range of chemicals, fuels and bio- ■ Figure 1. Feedstock price history.
based materials. The U.S. National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL) has defined a biorefin- biorefineries include improved lignocellulose frac-
ery as a facility that integrates biomass conversion tionation and pretreatment methods, reactor
processes and equipment to produce fuels, power designs optimized for conversion of renewable
and chemicals from biomass (1). feedstocks, and improved catalysts and catalytic
Over the past decade, a number of major trends processes, both synthetic and biological. These
have surfaced that are driving interest in the technologies are being developed in order to com-
biorefinery concept. Most of these trends are relat- mercialize ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass
ed to national energy security, rural economic and ethanol will probably form the backbone of
development and environmental quality. The most advanced biomass refineries (3).
significant trend to develop over the past several Kamm and Kamm have defined three biorefin-
years is the rise of feedstock costs. With the rise in ery systems that are currently in various stages of
oil and natural gas prices, bio-based feedstocks are research and development (4). First and probably
becoming increasingly competitive. This is illus- most advanced in terms of technology develop-
trated in Figure 1, which compares the price trend ment is the lignocellulose biorefinery, which uses
of corn, an important bio-based feedstock in the naturally dry raw materials such as cellulose con-
U.S., with natural gas and crude oil. Most experts taining biomass and wastes. Second is the whole
anticipate that fossil-based feedstock prices will crop biorefinery, which uses feedstocks such as
remain high in the long term as those resources cereals or corn. And third is the green biorefinery,
become depleted (2). which uses naturally wet biomass, such as green
grass, lucerne, clover or immature cereal. The
Biorefinery research Dept. of Energy’s (DOE) goal at the Office of the
The biorefinery of the future is likely to inte- Biomass Program (OBP) is to help U.S. industry
grate both bioconversion and chemical “cracking” establish the first large-scale integrated biorefinery
technologies. Technologies that are especially criti- based on agricultural residues by 2010 (5).
cal to hasten this transition to next generation In 1999, the Biomass Refining Consortium for
38 INDUSTRIAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY

Corn Grain Stream lase cost component was approximately $5/gal of

ethanol. As a result, the DOE awarded Genencor
and Novozymes about $15 million each to reduce
Milling
Corn Stover Grinding the enzyme conversion cost by a factor of 10 by
Stream the years 2003 and 2004, respectively (7). Their
efforts focused on corn stover as a feedstock using
NREL’s dilute acid pretreatment process. Both
Pretreatment
companies exceeded their goals. Genencor
Separation Fiber and announced in April 2003 that it had exceeded the
Depolymerization
10-fold goal for the program. In February 2004,
Novozymes announced that due to increased
Starch
enzyme activity and fermentation yield, the cost
Saccharification C5 /C6
of enzymes required to produce one gallon of
and Lignin gasoline was reduced by approximately 12-fold
Fermentation
Fermentation
from above $5 to below 50¢.
Because advanced biorefineries hold such
great promise, developing technologies that
Downstream Electricity/ Ethanol enable more efficient biorefinery operations are
Processing Steam
the focus of considerable academic, government,
and industrial research. In a joint solicitation
effort in 2002, the DOE and USDA initiated a
Value-Added Chemicals coordinated effort to support research that would
i.e., 1,3-Propanediol advance the role of biomass as a feedstock. The
two departments awarded funding to eight inno-
■ Figure 2. Integrated corn-based biorefinery concept, with vative projects, several of which will advance
permission from DuPont (8). biorefinery technology:
• DuPont, with help from Diversa, Deere and
Applied Fundamentals and Innovation (CAFI) Co., NREL, and Michigan State University, is
was formed as a multi-institutional effort to engaged in an effort to develop a new biorefinery
develop comparative information on cellulosic concept called the integrated corn biorefinery
biomass pretreatment options. Funding for this (ICBR; Figure 2). ICBR uses the entire corn plant
program is derived from both the DOE and the including the stalks, husks, leaves and kernels to
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through produce both fuels and value-added chemicals (8).
NREL and its contractor, Neoterics International. In July this year Diversa reported that the compa-
CAFI is nearing completion of a multi-institution- ny has delivered to DuPont a set of candidate
al program to develop comparative information enzymes under the ICBR program that exceed ini-
on cellulosic biomass pretreatment options (6), tial performance targets set by the DOE (9).
which include: • NatureWorks (formerly Cargill Dow) is col-
• aqueous ammonia recycle pretreatment at laborating with Genencor to develop cost-effec-
Auburn University tive technology that can produce sugars from lig-
• water only and dilute acid hydrolysis by co- nocellulosic biomass and convert them to fuels
current and flowthrough systems at Dartmouth like ethanol and chemicals like lactic acid.
College • The National Corn Growers Association is
• ammonia fiber explosion pretreatment at leading a biorefinery project on the separation
Michigan State University of corn fiber and conversion to fuels and chem-
• controlled pH pretreatment at Purdue icals. The project, which involves Archer
University Daniels Midland and Pacific Northwest
• lime pretreatment at Texas A&M University. National Laboratory, entails economically
Cellulase enzymes are a significant cost compo- deriving high-value chemicals and oils from
nent for the conversion of biomass to bio-based lower value corn fiber.
products like ethanol. In the late 1990s, the cellu- • Abengoa Bioenergy Corp., with the help of
 39

Novozymes and NREL, plans to build a new byproducts of grain production, they are abun-
starch and biomass conversion pilot plant in York, dant and underutilized. However, an integrated
NE. The objective of the facility is to increase feedstock supply system must be developed that
existing yields of ethanol from raw material can supply the feedstock needs in a sustainable
inputs by developing innovative starch and bio- fashion at a reasonable cost.
mass processing technologies. Currently, corn serves as the primary bio-feed-
Initiatives are also underway in Europe to stock for industrial uses. In 2003 U.S. corn farm-
develop biorefineries. R&D associations in ers produced a record crop of 10.1 billion bushels
Austria, Denmark, Germany, Iceland and and corn refiners shipped nearly 56 billion
Switzerland have fundamental research ongoing pounds of refined corn products (14). Corn refin-
towards developing related technology. The ers used over 1.7 billion bushels of corn to pro-
European Network for the Implementation of duce starches, sweeteners, ethanol, feed ingredi-
Biorefineries (NIB) was established in 1999 as a ents, vegetable oil, organic acids, amino acids
platform for the exchange of information (10). In and polyols, equating to 17% of the corn crop.
2003 a four year R&D program was started in Approximately 12% of the 2004/2005 season’s
the Netherlands to develop technology for con- corn crop, or 1.4 billion bushels, will be used for
version of lignocellulosic feedstock into ethanol ethanol production (15). Use for ethanol produc-
and lactic acid, electricity and heat (11). The tion is steadily increasing as more ethanol plants
project is a co-operative effort between industry are built in the U.S. In 2004, the industry pro-
and R&D institutes. duced a record 3.4 billion gallons, more than
The European Commission funded the BREW double that produced in 2000 (16).
project in 2003 to study the application of Crop residues such as corn stover represent a
biotechnology to produce bulk chemicals and huge potential, sustainable source of feedstock.
chemical intermediates from renewable raw Stover is the largest quantity of biomass residue
materials. The study will provide an overview of in the U.S. with an annual quantity of 220 million
the technical options, their environmental effects, tons with 30–60% available — 80–120 million
economics, and risks related to the options (12). tons (17). Its composition is about 70% cellulose
Developments in the next 10–20 years and in the and hemicellulose and 15–20% lignin. Although
long term are being addressed by a team of cellulose or hemicellulose are not readily convert-
experts from the chemical industry and from ed to chemicals such as lactic acid, there have
research organizations. been some studies in that area (18). A much larg-
er R&D effort has been made towards converting
Biomass feedstocks cellulose and hemicellulose to ethanol. Since corn
Biomass has potential to provide renewable stover is not currently collected, it is difficult to
energy and materials increasingly for the world’s estimate the quantity available for processing
future. Governments around the world have initi- into ethanol or other chemicals. The most com-
ated programs to develop a vision for bioenergy mon ratio used is 1:1 or one kg of above-ground
and biobased products. The DOE has set forth a residue for every kg of corn harvested. Farms
goal that biomass will supply 5% of the U.S.’ with high yields (i.e., greater than 150
power, 20% of transportation fuels and 25% of bushels/acre), may bring down the ratio to 0.9,
chemicals by 2030. The goal is ambitious, as it is while lower yields can result in a ratio of 1.1 (19).
equivalent to 30% of current petroleum consump- The overall goal of the roadmap developed for
tion and would require the approximate con- agricultural biomass feedstock supply in the U.S.
sumption of one billion dry tons of biomass feed- is to achieve a $30/dry ton cost of feedstock
stock annually, a five-fold increase over current delivered to a biorefinery (13). Current estimates
consumption (13). A consistent supply of high- for the delivered cost of biomass factoring in
quality, low-cost feedstock is vital in achieving variables such as growing conditions, amount to
this goal. Crop residue biomass is an attractive be left in field for sustainability, harvest efficien-
starting feedstock that shows the best near-term cy, transportation infrastructure, and postharvest
promise for utilization as cellulosic feedstocks for losses, are approximately $50–55/dry ton which
fuels and chemicals. Because these residues are includes a modest $10/dry ton to the biomass
40 INDUSTRIAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY

producer. Table 1 shows how research and tech- Table 1. Feedstock technology development
pathway (13).
nology developments outlined by the DOE lay
out a path for reducing this cost to the target
$/Biomass Dry Ton
$30/dry ton.
2003 Cost 53.29
A large number of options continue to be stud-
Selective Harvest 47.96
ied for delivering feedstock from the corn field to
Single-Pass Harvester 38.21
biorefinery (Figure 3). Various strategies may be
Transportation and Bulk 33.07
employed for collection, distribution and storage of
Storage and Pretreatment 31.57
the whole corn feedstock (i.e. grain and stover).
Nth Plant Savings (5%) 30.00
Optimum solutions will likely vary region to
region. In any event, it is unlikely for commercially
viable systems to be put in place prior to 2007. during harvest and corn stover and grain are
received by the biorefinery preseparated. Corn
Process economics stover is pretreated with dilute acid to hydrolyze
Understanding the economics of biorefinery most of the hemicellulose to soluble sugars. Stover
processing is crucial in realizing eventual commer- hydrolyzate undergoes saccharification of the cel-
cialization. Process economics for possible new lulose to glucose and fermentation of the resulting
biorefineries have been estimated as part of the glucose and other sugars to ethanol. Distillation
Process Economics Program (PEP; 21). Since new and molecular sieve adsorption are used to recover
biorefinery concepts such as ICBR are not yet prac- ethanol from the raw fermentation beer and pro-
ticed on a commercial scale, the economics are duce 99.5% ethanol. Corn kernels are dry milled
based on engineering estimates. and then saccharified in a second part of the biore-
The general concept of whole-crop processing is finery. The resulting hydrolyzed cornstarch under-
to take advantage of as much of the plant as possi- goes aerobic fermentation to form 1,3 propanediol
ble and process it into products that deliver the (PDO). PDO is recovered from fermentation broth
highest possible value. An economic model was and purified by distillation with hydrogenation.
developed to test the potential benefits of a whole- Distillers dried grain with solubles (DDGS) is
corn biorefinery. Figure 4 provides a block flow recovered as a byproduct for sale.
diagram of the whole corn biorefinery. For this Several core conversion technologies are inte-
study, it is assumed that the corn plant is separated grated into this whole-corn biorefinery model.

Multiple
Pass Grain Grain Drying Grain Storage
Harvest

Stover Drying Collection Dry Stover Bailing Transporting On-Farm Unitized

Dry Stover Storage

Corn Field Wet Stover Off-Farm Unitized

Collection Dry Stover Storage
Residue Residue

Grain On-Farm Unitized

Wet Stover Storage
Separated Packing
Harvest Wet Stover
Off-Farm Unitized
Single Wet Stover Storage
Pass Residue
Harvest
On-Farm On-Farm Bulk
Grain and Fractionating Wet Stover Storage
Whole Transporting
Plant Stover
Harvest Off-Farm Bulk
Residue Wet Stover Storage

Truck Rail
Off-Farm Stover
■ Figure 3. Feedstock from the corn field to the biorefinery. With Transport
Barge
Biorefinery
Pretreatment Transport
permission from Department of Agricultural and Biosystems
Engineering at Iowa State University (20).
 41

Table 2. Value bases.

Separation
Whole Corn
(Field)

Stover Kernels Unit Value

Gypsum Corn Grain $2.50/bushel (4.4¢/lb)
Dry Mill
Pretreatment and Enzymes Corn Stover 1.36¢/lb
Water Saccharification
Ethanol $1.07/gal
Distillers Dried Grain 5.1¢/lb
Saccharification
Enzymes Fermentation Air with Solubles (DDGS)
and
Co-Fermentation Gypsum Disposal 3¢/lb

Recovery DDGS
Distillation and such as sugar. Enzymes have been developed for
Purification Recovery
liquefaction and saccharification of starch.
This whole-corn biorefinery model is capital
Ethanol Lignin 1,3-Propanediol DDGS
intensive on a similar scale to corn wet milling.
Total capital investment for a biorefinery process-
■ Figure 4. Whole corn biorefinery. ing 2,000 metric tons (m.t.)/d of corn stover (dry
basis) and 2,000 m.t./d of corn grain is estimated
to be nearly $450 million (21). Over half of the
Recovery & Purification Pretreatment & Conditioning investment is for battery limits equipment. Two
27% 26% sections of the battery limits account for over half
of the battery limits capital investment (Figure 5).
DDGS Recovery Saccharification & Pretreatment and conditioning of the corn stover
2% Co-Fermentation feedstock is highly capital intensive as modeled
Aerobic Fermentation 11% here. This section is based on NREL’s dilute acid
14% prehydrolysis with overliming to detoxify the
3% 17%
hydrolysate (22). Corrosivity of this pretreatment
Dry Mill & Saccharification Distillation & Dehydration
process requires a more exotic material of construc-
tion such as Incoloy 825. Recovery and purification
■ Figure 5. Whole corn biorefinery battery limits investment. of PDO is also a capital-intensive section.
Recovering polymer-grade material from a fermen-
While some of these technologies are being prac- tation broth is often challenging. This model is
ticed on a commercial scale now, most are in vari- based on recovering and purifying PDO by filtra-
ous stages of development. Relevant conversion tion, ion exchange, hydrogenation and distillation
technologies may be broadly classified as: similar to a process described in a patent applica-
• Sugar-platform technologies enable the tion filed by DuPont and AE Staley (23).
release of sugars from lignocellulosic biomass. The offsites investment portion accounts for
Dilute acid can hydrolyze hemicellulose to yield over 40% of the total capital investment. This
pentose (5 carbon) and hexose (6 carbon) sugars, includes utilities such as cooling water facilities,
but byproducts are formed that are toxic to fer- steam plant, chilled water unit, tankage and waste
mentation organisms. treatment. Included is a combustor for combusting
• Fermentation technologies are used for con- the solid lignin byproduct. A turbogenerator gener-
verting sugar or mixed sugars to fuel or chemicals. ates steam for use in the plant as well as electricity.
Recombinant Zymomonas mobilis has been devel- Excess electricity is assumed to be sold on the grid.
oped for fermenting mixed sugars to ethanol. Gene The net production cost of making PDO in a
combinations from at least two organisms have whole corn biorefinery incorporates a number of
been introduced into E. coli to provide an organism elements including raw materials, byproduct cred-
that efficiently converts hydrolyzed corn starch to its, waste disposal, utilities, labor, maintenance
PDO under aerobic conditions. materials, plant overhead, taxes and insurance,
• Milling technologies are well established for depreciation, and corporate overheads. Table 2
the breakdown of corn kernels into components summarizes important value bases that were
42 INDUSTRIAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY

5 Lignin is a complex aromatic polymer that

4.5 Corn, $/bushel could potentially have valuable commercial
4 Ethanol, $/gal applications. A variety of potential applications
Reformulated have been studied including antioxidant (25),
3.5
Gasoline, $/gal
3 lignin-based resins (26) and conversion into a
Cost, $/unit

2.5 high-octane fuel additive (27). However, it is

2 unlikely that higher-value lignin applications will
1.5 be realized prior to the commercialization of the
1 first lignocellulosic or whole-crop biorefinery.
0.5 Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a fermentation
0 byproduct, but no credit has been taken in the
95 97 01 03 05 economic model described here. This byprod-
99
19 19 19 20 20 20 uct may represent some value to the biorefiner
depending on the plant location. Selling prices
■ Figure 6. Historical ethanol, corn and gasoline prices over the past decade. for CO2 in the U.S. merchant market can range
from $30/ton to $120/ton,
depending on the region.
70
While this whole-corn
Dedicated Plant
60 biorefinery model is not
Net Production Cost,

50 optimized, it does show

the importance of ethanol
¢/lb PDO*

40 sales to the overall eco-

Biorefinery
30 nomics. The unit value
basis for ethanol in this
20
analysis is assumed to be
10 $1.07/gal. DOE has chosen
0 a target ethanol selling
60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 price of $1.07/gal as a goal
Notes: PDO Capacity, million lb/yr for 2010 (22). If higher
1) Glucose feedstock at 9¢/lb prices are realized, then the
2) Ethanol value of $1.08/gal and DDGS value of 5.1¢/lb
biorefinery economics are
3) Sources: PEP Reports 227 and 257
enhanced. Ethanol prices
*PDO = 1,3 Propanediol are influenced by several
key factors, including tax
■ Figure 7. Process economics. incentives, demand for ethanol to meet refinery
octane and oxygenate requirements, as well as gaso-
assumed for the purpose of this analysis. line prices. In recent years, corn prices have not had
Byproduct credits play a valuable role in the a large influence on ethanol pricing (Figure 6).
overall biorefinery economics. In this analysis, Several factors potentially benefit PDO process
PDO is assumed to be the primary product and economics from a whole-corn biorefinery com-
ethanol and DDGS are important co-products. pared to a dedicated facility that employs glucose
Using the unit values in the Table 2, ethanol and as feedstock. Glucose is a refined sugar feedstock
DDGS contribute over 13¢/lb of PDO. Lignin is obtained from corn wet milling. In our whole-corn
also generated in significant quantities, but little biorefinery model, we have assumed PDO produc-
value is realized from this co-product. A modest tion by fermentation of partially hydrolyzed corn-
contribution is made by taking advantage of the starch. This material may be cheaper than glucose
material’s energy content to generate steam and as the purification step is eliminated. Also, there
electricity. This is comparable to the case of kraft should be synergies in the biorefinery from shared
pulp mills, where lignin and hemicellulose degra- use of utility and waste treatment facilities. Figure
dation products are burned in a recovery boiler as 7 illustrates the process economic benefits of a
low value fuel (24). whole-corn biorefinery vs. a dedicated fermenta-
 43

tion plant. At a comparable PDO capacity of 240

Literature Cited
million lb/yr, the net PDO production cost from a
whole-corn biorefinery is estimated to be about
three-fourths that from a dedicated plant utilizing 1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory website, www.nrel.gov/bio-
mass/biorefinery.
glucose feedstock. 2. “IFP Sees Higher Oil Prices to Come,” European Chemical News,
Due to the high capital cost of a whole-corn (Sept. 6–12, 2004).
biorefinery, the first commercial application may not 3. Jechura, J. L., et al., “Encouraging the Development of
Biorefineries,” Oral Presentation at the 24th Symposium on on
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Microbiol. Biotechnol. (Apr. 2004).
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dependent on fluctuations in the selling price and 7. Hettenhaus, J., et al., “Sugar Platform Colloquies,” NREL/SR 510-
31970 (May 2002).
markets for commodity products like ethanol and 8. Hennessey, S., “Critical Success Factors: Upstream Biomass
animal feed. However, it would require establishing Processing,” Oral Presentation at the World Congress on Industrial
Biotechnology and Bioprocessing (Apr. 21, 2004).
markets for new products such as PDO. 9. Sabarsky, M., “Diversa Achieves Key Milestone in Biorefinery
The major technical change to move from corn Program with DuPont Bio-Based Materials,” Diversa Corp. Press
milling to a whole-corn biorefinery is to add the Release (July 11, 2005).
10. Kamm, B., et al., “Green Biorefinery European Network for the
capability to process lignocellulosic materials. It is Implementation of Biorefineries,” Brandenburgische Umwelt
currently not clear which technologies may be Berichte (2000).
11. Reith, J., et al., “Co-Production of Cellulosic Bio-Ethanol, Power
most appropriate to employ for processing these and Heat,” 4th European Motor Biofuels Forum (2003).
materials. In the biorefinery model presented here, 12. Patel, M., “The BREW Project,” http://www.chem.uu.nl/brew/
we have assumed a dilute acid pretreatment with (2005).
13. U.S. DOE, “Roadmap for Agricultural Biomass Feedstock Supply
overliming detoxification. This technology has sev- in the United States,” (Nov. 2003).
eral drawbacks including generation of waste gyp- 14. Corn Refiners Association, Annual Report 2004.
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have potential for commercialization. As described (1998).
previously, CAFI studies are still underway on sev- 18. Chen, R., et al., “Membrane-Mediated Extractive Fermentation for
Lactic Acid Production from Cellulosic Biomass,” Applied
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Feedstock for Bioethanol Production,” Bioresource Technology
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GREGORY M. BOHLMANN, assistant director of SRI Consulting’s Propanediol,” WO 2004/101479 A2 (Nov. 25, 2004).
Process Economics Program, specializes in technoeconomic 24. Pye, E., “Biorefining; a Major Opportunity for the Sugar Cane
process evaluations (4300 Bohannon Drive, Suite 200, Menlo Industry,” International Sugar Journal (2005).
Park, CA 92405; E-mail: gbohlmann@sriconsulting.com). His 25. Guffey, F., “The Use of Lignin as an Antioxidant to Improve Highway
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has also evaluated manufacturing processes and markets for 26. Kosbar, L., et al., “Introducing Biobased Materials into the
biodegradable polymers. Before joining SRIC 17 years ago, Electronics Industry,” Journal of Industrial Ecology (2000).
Bohlmann was a senior process engineer with Union Carbide 27. Montague, L., “Lignin Process Design Confirmation and Capital
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chemical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Application in Biomass Processing,” Applied Biochemistry and
the University of North Carolina. Biotechnology (2002).