Project
Call for partners | Application and separation of wood vinegar -First the sour then the sweet
Pyrolysis can be used to utilize and valorise lignocellulosic biomass for example residue streams from agriculture and forestry. The primary product of rapid pyrolysis is pyrolysis oil. The by-product from the water removal process is the aqueous condensate that contains a lot of oxygenates such as acetic acid, formic acids, alcohols and phenolics, called wood vinegar. A good application for this stream has not been found yet, while it is important for the economy and circularity of the process.
The TKI project will analyse the composition of wood vinegar and focus on the application of the whole wood vinegar mixture as such and on the isolation of certain valuable compounds. Applications as such may be the use of wood vinegar is a biostimulant in crop production and as a carbon and energy source for denitrification and biological phosphate removal in biological wastewater treatment plants.
The mixture can be used to produce bioplastic (PHA) and to add to manure storage to prevent methane and ammonia emission (by a pH decrease; afterwards the added compounds can be turned into biogas in a biodigester). Isolated acetic acid can be used as a cleaning agent, as a deicer, as a raw material to produce caproic acid and isolated glycolaldehyde can be used to produce glycolic acid (cosmetics, medicines, health care) and polyester (polyglycolic acid). Application research will be carried out and separation processes will be developed to isolate certain compounds.
Partners
Already two pyrolysis companies are involved. We need parties that can use the wood vinegar: suppliers and users of biostimulants, owners of wastewater treatment plants, PHA producers seeking for substrates, green herbicide producers. (Representatives of) dairy farmers. Acetic acid users; companies in green cleaning agents, deicers. Polyester producers that would like to produce biobased polyglycolic acid, chemical companies that would like to produce biobased glycolic acids. Companies that supply separation technologies (e.g. membrane modules). We have the intention to start a TKI project on this subject and ask parties to contribute with cash and in kind.