High value, zero waste — ATB research­ers con­cep­tu­al­ise nov­el biorefinery

What does it mean if our eco­nomy works without fossil raw mater­i­als such as oil and gas? The logic­al answer is that we will have to cre­ate value almost exclus­ively with bio­lo­gic­al, renew­able resources. This so-called bioeconomy presents us with major chal­lenges, both loc­ally and glob­ally. Research­ers from Leib­n­iz Insti­tute for Agri­cul­tur­al Engin­eer­ing and Bioeconomy in Pots­dam recently pub­lished a concept paper in the sci­entif­ic Bio­fuel Research Journ­al, which com­bines com­mon bioeconomy mod­els into a com­pre­hens­ive concept. They describe what a cir­cu­lar and sus­tain­able bioeconomy with­in plan­et­ary bound­ar­ies could look like. Smart integ­rated biore­finer­ies are a key com­pon­ent of this vision.

Bio­mass, i.e. grown, bio­lo­gic­al raw mater­i­als, are a great treas­ure. We eat it, feed it, burn it or util­ise it. What remains is usu­ally com­pos­ted, land­filled or incin­er­ated. Yet there is still poten­tial in every unused residue. One way to util­ise this poten­tial is through intel­li­gent, integ­rated biore­finer­ies. Unlike con­ven­tion­al biore­finer­ies, in which chem­ic­al com­pan­ies, for example, extract one spe­cial bio­chem­ic­al from one spe­cial bio­lo­gic­al start­ing mater­i­al, they com­bine sev­er­al con­ver­sion processes.

The poten­tial of intel­li­gent biore­finer­ies is immense

Dr Nader Mar­zban is a research­er at Leib­n­iz Insti­tute for Agri­cul­tur­al Engin­eer­ing and Bioeconomy (ATB) and lead author of the con­cep­tu­al paper ​“Smart Integ­rated Biore­finer­ies in Bioeconomy: A Concept Toward Zero-Waste, Emis­sion Reduc­tion, and Self-Suf­fi­cient Energy Pro­duc­tion”. He describes it like this: ​“There are many con­ver­sion tech­no­lo­gies that gen­er­ate valu­able mater­i­als from bio­mass. These include among oth­ers micro­bi­al fer­ment­a­tion, such as anaer­obic diges­tion, and pyro­lys­is. Anaer­obic diges­tion, for example, pro­duces bio­gas, whereby the remain­ing digest­ate still con­tains valu­able organ­ic com­pounds. Instead of using it as a fer­til­iser, as is tra­di­tion­ally the case, we can con­vert this digest­ate into arti­fi­cial hum­ic sub­stances through hydro­therm­al hum­i­fic­a­tion. When intro­duced into the soil, it sta­bil­ises bac­teri­al diversity and improves soil health. Anoth­er prom­ising approach is the com­bin­a­tion of anaer­obic fer­ment­a­tion with pyro­lys­is, i.e. car­bon­isa­tion. Here, biochar acts as a cata­lyst and increases the effi­ciency of bio­gas pro­duc­tion. At the same time, the biochar is enriched with nutri­ents. It can thus keep nutri­ents avail­able in the soil for a long time and – depend­ing on the pro­cess con­di­tions – store car­bon for more than a century.

Anoth­er example is fer­ment­a­tion. If biochar is added, fer­ment­a­tion inhib­it­ors are broken down, which sig­ni­fic­antly increases the eth­an­ol and lact­ic acid yield. In addi­tion, the bio­heat and elec­tri­city gen­er­ated dur­ing pyro­lys­is can be used for fer­ment­a­tion, which reduces depend­ence on extern­al energy sources. CO₂ emis­sions from pyro­lys­is can be cap­tured and used for the cul­tiv­a­tion of algae, which in turn serve as an altern­at­ive source of protein.”

The poten­tial of intel­li­gent biore­finer­ies is immense, but so is the num­ber of pos­sible optim­isa­tions. Indus­tri­al pro­cesses such as anaer­obic diges­tion, fer­ment­a­tion, pyro­lys­is, car­bon­isa­tion and hum­i­fic­a­tion each have adjustable para­met­ers and can be com­bined in a vari­ety of ways. Instead of rely­ing on a single type of bio­mass, the research­ers work with 90 dif­fer­ent raw mater­i­als that vary region­ally and sea­son­ally. By defin­ing key object­ives and adjustable para­met­ers for each pro­cess, mil­lions of poten­tial scen­ari­os are created.

Dr Mar­zban points out: ​“Invest­ig­at­ing all these scen­ari­os exper­i­ment­ally would be extremely costly and time-con­sum­ing. Yet time is a lux­ury that we can­not afford. Our eco­nomy is still heav­ily depend­ent on fossil raw mater­i­als. We are already see­ing the neg­at­ive effects. That’s why we rely on AI-driv­en sim­u­la­tions to identi­fy the most effi­cient approaches. As pro­cess sci­ent­ists, we pro­ceed step by step and ini­tially optim­ise sub­sys­tems, which we then gradu­ally link togeth­er to com­bine them into a lar­ger whole.”

A sus­tain­able bioeconomy with zero waste and with­in plan­et­ary boundaries

Glob­al industry expert­ise and extens­ive research res­ults – includ­ing from ATB – provide a rich data basis for the fur­ther devel­op­ment of exist­ing bio­mass con­ver­sion pro­cesses. Key tech­no­lo­gies are sensors that meas­ure dir­ectly in the pro­cesses and help to gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of product-pro­cess inter­ac­tions as well as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, digit­al twins and advanced mod­el­ling tech­niques. By lever­aging data, pro­cessing capa­cit­ies and algorithms, smart integ­rated biore­finer­ies can be developed that are adapt­able and scal­able and can pro­cess thou­sands, if not mil­lions, of scenarios.

Prof Bar­bara Sturm, Sci­entif­ic Dir­ect­or at ATB and cor­res­pond­ing author of the paper explains: ​“The smart integ­rated biore­finer­ies can be developed using net­works and dia­logues between dif­fer­ent mod­elled sys­tems and then be val­id­ated in real­ity. This val­id­a­tion pro­cess allows for the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of gaps and the uncov­er­ing of hid­den oppor­tun­it­ies, which can be addressed either by repur­pos­ing exist­ing tech­no­lo­gies and sys­tems or by intro­du­cing innov­at­ive solu­tions such as arti­fi­cial hum­ic sub­stances. In this sys­tem­ic approach, each biore­finery com­pon­ent act­ively seeks con­nec­tions with oth­ers, form­ing lar­ger, integ­rated net­works. This sys­tem would con­stantly sim­u­lat­ing the next steps to find out the best way to achieve defined goals. That will enhance sus­tain­ab­il­ity and cir­cu­lar­ity with­in bioeco­nom­ic mod­els, cre­at­ing jobs and sup­port the policy maker. Our vis­ion is to achieve a more resi­li­ent, effi­cient and future-proof bio-based eco­nomy through this sys­tem­ic integration.”

The integ­rated approach could enable us to cre­ate a truly sus­tain­able bioeconomy with zero waste and remain­ing with­in our plan­et­ary bound­ar­ies. It increases prof­it­ab­il­ity and com­pet­it­ive­ness, which is urgently needed giv­en the lower cost of fossil products. Nev­er­the­less, gov­ern­ment sup­port and policy inter­ven­tions are cru­cial to facil­it­ate and accel­er­ate the trans­ition to green tech­no­lo­gies. In the long term, smart integ­rated biore­finer­ies will undoubtedly be more prof­it­able than sys­tems focussed on a single pro­cess. They will also reduce the need to import raw mater­i­als and thus increase the resi­li­ence of our eco­nom­ic systems.

Time for implementation

With the concept paper, the ATB team togeth­er with part­ners from the Uni­ver­sity of Pots­dam and the Tech­nic­al Uni­ver­sity of Ber­lin has taken the first step. Now it’s time for prov­ing and imple­ment­a­tion. This March, ATB will begin con­struc­tion of a biore­finery for research pur­poses in Groß Kreutz, Branden­burg, Ger­many. This will com­ple­ment the exist­ing pilot plants and facil­it­ies at the Pots­dam site and the Field­lab for Digit­al Agri­cul­ture in Pots­dam-Marquardt. As part of the Leib­n­iz Innov­a­tion Farm for Sus­tain­able Bioeconomy (Inno­Hof®), a facil­ity is being cre­ated that will not only bring togeth­er research and prac­tice in a co-cre­at­ive way, but will also demon­strate the feas­ib­il­ity of such concepts.

Fur­ther­more, ATB is in the pro­cess of apply­ing for an exten­sion of the insti­tute in order to integ­rate such sys­tem­ic approaches even more con­sist­ently into its research. In a joint appoint­ment with the Uni­ver­sity of Osnab­rück, ATB is cur­rently filling a pro­fess­or­ship for sys­tems sci­ence in bioeconomy. Prof. Sturm emphas­ises: ​“We have to think sys­tem­ic, tech­nic­al, social and eco­nom­ic innov­a­tions togeth­er. Only if we under­stand a sys­tem as a whole we will be able to optim­ise sub­sys­tems in such a way that they effect­ively serve sus­tain­ab­il­ity. With our concept, we will fur­ther intensi­fy inter­dis­cip­lin­ary bioeconomy research with polit­ic­al decision-makers, industry lead­ers and the food and nutri­tion sec­tor with the aim of increas­ing the resi­li­ence of our eco­nom­ic sys­tem, mak­ing our eco­nomy more sus­tain­able and sup­port­ing the tech­no­lo­gic­al sov­er­eignty of Ger­many and Europe.”

The ori­gin­al pub­lic­a­tion can be found here.