Biofuels pilot plant
Today the interns took a field trip to the cellulosic ethanol pilot plant at Frazier Rogers Hall. The recently built facility houses many reactor vessels as well as a fully stocked chemistry laboratory. We took a tour and learned about the process of making cellulosic ethanol. The cellulosic feedstock included wood chips and bagasse, the remains of sugarcane pressing. Feedstock characterization is the first step, which is done using the HPSC machine that can separate organic compounds. Various tests are run on different cellulosic feedstocks to determine reactor parameters. Our tour guide showed us samples of treated baggase. Pretreatment starts off with raw bagasse soaked in phosphoric acid and then placed into a screw press. After this chemical hydrolysis, it is transferred to the steam explosion vessel where a sudden drop in the high pressure chamber and an acid catalyst frees the cellulose from the lignin and hemicellulose. The product is a solid cellulose, lignin, and liquid hemicellulose mixture. The microbes used to carry out the fermentation in this lab is a patented strain of E. coli that can survive inhibitors in 180°C hydrolysate and breaks down pentose and hexose simultaneously. We also got to see a sample of pure ethanol distilled in the lab.