Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes CBPOrganosolv pilot plant at Fraunhofer CBP becomes more economical
The planned conversion and expansion measures concern the further development and optimization of the Organosolv process with the aim of increasing the economic efficiency of the overall process and transferring the plant concept into a demonstration plant. This is intended to complement and strengthen the activities of the projects carried out in the BioEconomy leading edge cluster to prepare the demonstration scale of organosolv technology and to reduce the technological and economic risks. With the planned investment, a process step developed in the “Biomass Digestion“ BioEconomy cluster project is to be established in the pilot plant and a novel online measurement technology for improved process monitoring is to be installed.
Energy‑efficient and water‑saving lignin precipitation reduces costs
In the leading-edge cluster project “Biomass Digestion“, which is funded by the German BMBF, work is currently underway on the optimization of the integrated overall process on a pilot scale. On the basis of the data obtained there a concept for a demonstration plant is being developed. Within the cooperation with the Max‑Planck‑Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems (Magdeburg), a promising approach for the energy‑efficient and water‑saving precipitation of lignin from the digestion solution was found.
The new, patent-pending process control leads to a significant cost reduction in the process steps of lignin precipitation and solvent processing. In order to implement this innovative approach in the pilot plant and to obtain important data to safeguard the industrial property rights in the new process as well as to prepare the large-scale implementation of the technology, expansion measures are necessary at the existing plant, which will be implemented within the framework of this project.
