Expertise
DBFZ develops various concepts for the economically viable, ecologically harmless and socially acceptable use of biomass. The development of efficient separation technologies for the production of biobased products is essential for the development of new biorefinery concepts. At DBFZ individual separation steps and their combination into separation cascades are being developed on a pilot scale. The integration into complete biorefineries is modelled and analyzed by flowsheet simulation.
In the NEXT-STEP project, DBFZ will identify an optimal purification scheme for the xylose-rich and the glucose-rich crude hardwood sugar solutions from Fibenol. Impurities and inhibitors for subsequent fermentation processes must be removed as much as necessary.
Main contact
Email: info_nextstep@mevaldi.com
Key persons involved in NEXT-STEP
Arne Gröngröft
Arne Gröngröft has been working on the purification of wood hydrolyzates in previous projects. He is the head of the working group “Separation Technologies and Process Design” at DBFZ and will coordinate the NEXT-STEP work at DBFZ.
Otto Laufer
Otto Laufer will plan and conduct the adsorption experiments to remove inhibitors from the hydrolyzates as well as using vacuum evaporation for their concentration.
Theresa Menzel
Theresa Menzel will work on efficient membrane filtration processes to remove fine particles and large molecules from the hydrolyzates and for the energy-efficient concentration of the wood sugars.
Marcel Fritzsch
Marcel Fritzsch is the expert in operating the pilot-scale separation equipment at DBFZ and will prepare and conduct the experiments.
Andrés Acosta and Benjamin Herklotz
Andrés Acosta and Benjamin Herklotz are experts in hydrothermal processes. They will be responsible for carrying out a desk study on the use of other European 2nd generation feedstock in the fermentation process, as a means of identifying possibilities for large-scale implementation.