Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras
Method for Pretreatment of Biomass Using Ammoniacal Glycerol
Technology Category/Market
Category – Green Technology, Biofuels
Applications – Cellulosic Ethanol Production, Energy, Biofuels, Waste Management
Industry – Biofuels, Agriculture Waste Management
Market – Bioethanol market size is estimated to be USD 83.4 B in 2023, and it is projected to reach USD 114.7 B by 2028 at a CAGR of 6.6%
Targeted Industries
Watermarking IP design,
Electronic circuits
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Problem Statement
- Glycerol formation accounts for about 10% of the biodiesel produced. Successful utilization of the crude glycerol for pre-treatment of biomass can help in solving a major problem of biodiesel industry and at the same time help to release sugars from biomass for bioethanol production.
- However, glycerol pre-treatment is an energy intensive process, for effective pre-treatment requires high temperature (>190°C)
- Glycerol pre-treatment partially removes lignin and xylan from the biomass resulting in pre-treated solids with low polysaccharide content.
- Therefore, a need exists for an improved method for pre-treatment of biomass at relatively low temperatures with high sugar recovery.
- The improved method of pre-treatment of biomass using glycerol should facilitate efficient enzymatic hydrolysis.
Technology
- A method for pre-treatment of biomass using ammoniacal glycerol for high sugar recovery and efficient saccharification.
- The proposed method uses a mixture of ammonia (5%) and glycerol (50%) (ammoniacal glycerol) for organosolv pre-treatment at lower temperature (120°C).
- The proposed method selectively removes lignin and significantly improves the digestibility of cellulose and xylan.
Key Features/Value Proposition
- The new method selectively removed lignin and significantly improved the digestibility of cellulose and xylan.
- Yields of glucose, xylose and total sugars released in enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass pretreated with ammoniacal glycerol (glycerol + ammonia) are higher by 2.8, 7.4 and 3.5 folds respectively when compared with the pretreatment using only glycerol.
- Pretreated biomass of bagasse, rice straw and wheat straw were digested with cellulase loading of 10 FPU/g.
Questions about this Technology?
Contact for Licensing
Research Lab
Prof. Chandraraj Krishnan,
Department of Biotechnology
Intellectual Property
- IITM IDF Ref. 1749
- IN 428548 – Patent Granted
Technology Readiness Level
TRL – 3
Technology concept formulated.