Optimisation of biomass valorisation process

Abstract

The project was presented through an external collaborator which is Biotech Services Limited. Mainly, the report aims to build a literature review to understand the existing lignin extraction processes and optimise them in accordance with the external collaborator’s requirements. Moreover, the main consideration in this biomass valorisation process is lignin. However, an investigation of biomass, lignin, and different feedstocks that can be used to extract lignin was made in this report. In addition to the different mechanical and chemical pre-treatment methods and their uses and effects on the extraction processes. With the aim of finding the optimum extraction process according to this project's requirements a thorough investigation of the current and latest extraction methods was done to gain the necessary information that will aid in the selection process. Moreover, a decision matrix technique was used with the aim of supporting the decision-making process, within the matrix many assessments were done to evaluate each process's safety and the impact they possess on the economy, environment, and community. Finally, based on the gathered information a complete analysis was performed to determine the best extraction method by comparing the results that each process achieved in each criterion of the decision matrix, with that and the fact that the criteria were based on stakeholder's requirements alongside the business needs, the optimum process out of the sixteen processes covered in this paper, and the one that was recommended to the client was the soda process which achieved the highest score of 49 in the decision matrix, followed by the DES and organosolv processes which scored 42 and 40 respectively. At last, came the kraft process which scored 34 in the decision matrix.