BPF Orders Voith Prehydrolysis System for Bio Pilot Plant
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Valmet's delivery consists of a prehydrolysis system on pilot scale that is designed for a capacity of 40 kg of wheat straw (biomass) per hour. Startup of the system is scheduled for this August.
BPF's bio pilot plant is designed to handle different biomass raw materials, agricultural wastes such as wheat straw and bagasse, and also wood. The key parts of the pilot plant are biomass feeding, hydrolysis reactors, and equipment for separation of liquid and residual solid biomass after hydrolysis.
Prehydrolysis is an important step in the production of second generation ethanol via the enzyme route. Prehydrolysis prepares the biomass so that polysaccharides in the biomass become accessible. In the hydrolysis step, the polysaccarides can be released as mono sugars for fermentation to biochemicals and biofuels.
"After evaluating several systems, we have chosen the Valmet system because of proven technology, experience, and flexibility in using the system for several pretreatments and feedstocks. We think that we will be able to help our customers improve their biobased processes," Hans van Leeuwen, BPF director, said.
The BPF is an open access, unique, multi-purpose facility where universities, companies, and knowledge institutions from all over the world can investigate how production processes respond to pilot scales and how they can be scaled up. Here, issues that do not occur at laboratory scale can be detected and studied.
