LBNL Tech Connect 2017 TC2017_flipbook | Page 5

One Pot Biomass Pretreatment, Saccharification and Fermentation Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Systems that advance market competitiveness of fuels and chemicals produced from sustainable non-food crops     Following  are  representative  technologies  developed  at  the  Joint  BioEnergy  Institute  (JBEI)  to   simplify  biomass  pretreatment,  hydrolysis,  and  fermentation  including  new,  low-­‐cost  ionic   liquids  to  enable  rapid  and  high-­‐yielding  sugar  recovery  from  biomass.         Streamlined  Saccharification  from  Lignocellulosic  Biomass   (2015-­‐143)   Blake  Simmons,  Seema  Singh,  and  Feng  Xu  have  developed  a  technology  using  bio-­‐derived  ionic   liquids  in  high  biomass-­‐loading  pretreatment  followed  by  fed  batch  saccharification  to  yield  a   sugar  stream  that  can  be  used  instantly  for  microbial  fermentation,  without  additional  steps.   The  technology  reduces  the  use  of  ionic  liquids  and  water  significantly  and  diminishes   wastewater  generation  to  lower  the  cost  of  cellulosic  ethanol  production  overall.  Bio-­‐derived   ionic  liquids  are  also  known  for  their  low  toxicity  to  hydrolytic  enzyme  mixtures  and  microbes.     Consolidated  Conversion  of  Biomass  into  Biofuels  using  Ionic  Liquids   (2014-­‐139)   By  overcoming  the  pH  mismatch  between  pretreatment  and  downstream  unit  operations  with   cholinium-­‐based  ionic  liquids  using  commercially  available  enzyme  mixtures  and  fermentation   hosts,  this  technology  eliminates  the  requirement  for  extensive  rinsing  of  the  pretreated   biomass  and  /  or  post-­‐treatment  for  substantial  savings  in  energy  and  water  consumption.     Switchable  Ionic  Liquids  for  Biomass  Pretreatment  and  Enzymatic  Hydrolysis   (2014-­‐064)   This  one-­‐pot  technology  enables  both  efficient  pretreatment  of  biomass  and  saccharification  of   cellulose  without  removing  the  ionic  liquid  used  in  the  process  by  taking  advantage  of  the   ionization  states  of  carboxylic  acids  to  switch  from  a  basic  solution  that  pretreats  biomass  to  an   acidic  solution  with  conditions  favorable  for  enzymes  that  break  down  polysaccharide  biomass.   The  technology  enables  efficient  recovery  and  recycling  of  the  ionic  liquid  to  avoid  the  expense   of  purchasing  new  ionic  liquids  for  each  pretreatment  run.     JBEI  is  an  LBNL-­‐led  research  partnership  of  Lawrence  Berkeley  National  Laboratory,  Lawrence   Livermore  National  Laboratory,  Pacific  Northwest  National  Laboratory,  Sandia  National   Laboratory,  the  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  the  University  of  California,  Davis,  and  the   Carnegie  Institution  for  Science.       For  information  on  partnership  opportunities:   Peter  Matlock,  JBEI  Director  of  Commerci alization   [email protected],  510-­‐486-­‐4803   ipo.lbl.gov   jbei.org