Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Due to the recent environmental problems caused by excessive use of fossil fuel resources, increased attention has been given world wide on use of renewable resources such as biomass for the production of alternative fuels and chemicals. Therefore, the efficient and environmentally friendly technologies that can convert biomass to valuable liquid fuels and chemicals are needed for mitigation of climate change problems. The major goal of the proposed research is to develop an integrated process for complete utilization of Canadian biomass (agricultural waste, forest residue and municipal organic wastes) for the production of either value added chemicals or fuel gas using supercritical technology. Supercritical fluid extraction emerges as a new technology for the extraction of various biochemicals, which have advantages over traditional solvent extraction process by eliminating the polluting organic solvents. Waste biomass will be converted to fermentable sugars using supercritical water treatment where the reaction process parameters will be optimized for higher product fermentable sugars selectivity. These sugars will be further converted to bio-ethanol using various enzymes. Biomass will be also converted to fuel gases such as H2, CO and CH4 by catalytic gasification of biomass in supercritical water. Bio-oil is not only the promising alternative fuel but also the source of many chemicals. Another targeted area of present work is the extraction of biophenolic fraction from bio-oil using supercritical carbon dioxide and then the convertion of the remaining biooils to biochemicals such as benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) using zeolites. These biophenols and BTX are most promising alternatives to petro-derived phenols and BTX which find huge market in resin, composite wood and laminate industry, and chemical industry. Overall the target of the present research is to develop the integrated environmentally friendly technologies for the utilization of biomass for fuels and chemicals.