When the "The BEI Hydrolysis Process and Reactor System (BEI HP&RS)"
was a private, proprietary and confidential intellectual property invention, applications for U.S. and Canada Patents were
submitted. Subsequently, BEI submitted a proposal to the USDOC National Institute of Science and Technology's
(NIST) Office of Energy Related Inventions (OERI), for a confidential overall technical and economic review of
the BEI HP&RS. The USDOC-NIST-OERI Final Technical Evaluations Report No. 457 was completed 14 months from
the date of its submittal by its inventor: Donald L. Brelsford, P.E., President, Brelsford Engineering,
Inc. (BEI) Bozeman, MT. That Final OERI Technical Evaluation Report of J. J. Ulbrecht concluded: "The BEI Process has potential
for achieving considerable economic savings in: (1) acid-consumption, (2) heat-energy supplied for cellulose
hydrolysis, and (3 ) process-energy for fuel ethanol production. These process and economic
savings are likely to be partially off-set, by no more than one percent loss in total sugars yield."Agricultural crop and
logging residues, as processing cellulosic feedstocks, have a cost of about $45/ton. For a conventional known two-stage
(dilute-acid) cellulose hydrolysis processing, that cost of cellulosic feedstock raw material would convert to a cost of about
$1.17/gallon for fuel ethanol. It follows, in the case of the BEI Cellulose Hydrolysis Process, the cost of acid would
drop 36% and that of process energy would be 30% less, consequently with the BEI process the comparable cost of fuel ethanol
is reduced to about $0.91/gallon "If the sixty million tons of agricultural crop and logging residues were collected
in the U.S. and were cellulose hydrolysis processed into fuel ethanol, approximately 12% of our national oil consumption in
1980 could have been replaced. If all such available ligno-cellulossic biomass residues were so processed into
fuel ethanol today, it could be replacing some 78% of U.S. oil supply for consumption J.J. Ulbrecht
The BEI Chemical Engineering Technical Report #401: "Relative Comparison
of Dilute Acid Cellulose Hydrolysis (DACH) Processes Conversion of the Known Art and the BEI Hydrolysis Process" includes
a Table of direct DACH comparative data and three graphs of pine softwood dilute-acid cellulose process reaction performance
details. That table is shown below. It indicates that the BEI-DACH-P&RS has significantly improved performance,
reduced operating times and efficient waste disposal benefits. The estimated industrial capital costs for the BEI-DACH-P&RS
are about 50% of those for comparable cellulose hydrolysis processing facilities.
Relative Comparison of Dilute Acid Cellulose Hydrolysis
In the 1980's and before, the performance of TVA and USDA-FPL Known-Art
dilute-acid cellulose hydrolysis processes were widely understood to be inadequate, efficient and uneconomical for commercialization.
That was caused by their requirements for substantially high: (a) chemical process energy demands, (b) dilute-acid operations
costs and (c) excessive waste disposal costs. The BEI-DACH-P&RS provides continuous automatic chemical processing
control, in each of the two stages, as a single system. Consequently, it provides uniquely high yields of sugars in the hydrolysates
from the unique, highly efficient, dilute-acid cellulose hydrolysis conversion of the feedstock polysaccharides.
TABLE:
RELATIVE OVERALL COMPARISON
KNOWN ART vs. BEI PROCESS ART
Feedstock:
Softwood Sawdust
Stage One – Softwood Sawdust - Hemi-Cellulose Hydrolysis (SW-HCH)
|
|
Known
Art
lb/hr |
BEI Process
Art
lb/hr |
BEI Art
÷ Known Art
(%) |
|
Feedstock SW-SD |
1,000 @ db |
1,000 @ db |
100 |
|
Processing |
|
|
|
|
Slurry water & steam |
7285 |
5925 AC-H |
0 |
|
Acid catalyst |
144.5 |
20 |
13.8 |
|
Boiler capacity required |
44 BHP |
0 |
0 |
|
Products |
|
|
|
|
Xylose sugars |
53.9 |
53.9 |
100 |
|
Xylose sugar concentration |
0.74% |
0.91% |
123 |
|
Hexose sugar |
106.3 |
106.3 |
100 |
|
Hexose sugar concentration |
1.46% |
1.79% |
123 |
|
Decomposition |
|
|
|
|
Furfural from Xylose |
7.5 |
7.5 |
100 |
|
Furfural Concentration |
0.11% |
0.13% |
118.2 |
Stage Two – Softwood Sawdust - Alpha Cellulose Hydrolysis (w/50% ACHR
Recycled)
Feedstock: Unhydrolyzed Pine
SW-HCH Residue from Stage One Hydrolysis
|
Processing |
|
|
|
|
Reaction time |
8.2 min |
7.0 min |
85.4 |
|
Water & steam into slurry |
6275 |
6275 |
100 |
|
Boiler capacity |
50 BHP |
50 BHP |
100 |
|
Acid catalyst |
125.5 |
97.8 |
77.9 |
|
Products |
|
|
|
|
Glucose sugars |
299.5 |
331.4 |
110.7 |
|
Glucose sugar concentration |
4.60% |
6.30% |
137 |
|
AC Hexose sugars |
44.1 |
47 |
106.6 |
|
AC Hexose sugar conc. |
0.7 |
0.95 |
135.7 |
|
Decomposition |
|
|
|
|
HMF from Glucose |
96.8 |
86.8 |
89.7 |
|
HMF from AC Hexose |
17.7 |
15.1 |
85.3 |
Summary – Comparative SW-Dilute Acid Cellulose Hydrolysis Processing
Results
|
Process Energy:
Boiler cap. |
94 BHP |
50 BHP |
55.6 |
|
Acid catalyst lbs/hr = pph |
270 |
117.8 |
43.6 |
|
Slurry water & solution |
12,500 pph |
6275 pph |
50.2 |
|
Products |
|
|
|
|
Stage one sugars |
160.2 pph |
160.2 pph |
100 |
|
Solution concentration |
2.20% |
2.70% |
123 |
|
Stage two sugars |
343.6 pph |
378.4 pph |
110.3 |
|
Solution concentration |
5.30% |
7.30% |
136.8 |
|
Combined Sugars, lb/hr |
504.3 pph |
538.6 pph |
107.0 |
|
Combined sug. solution conc. |
3.70% |
11.10% |
303.3 |
|
