AGRE-0061 The Whole Crop Biorefinery Project

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Biological Conversion : ECLAIR Cluster VIII - Biorefinery : Process Engineering : Protein/Amino Acid : Separation/Fractionation : Starch : Storage/Transport : Straw : Vegetable Oil/Fat

INTRODUCTION

Most agricultural crops have physical and chemical characteristics that make them well-suited as raw materials for the production of a great number of non-food products. Many more non-food uses were found for crops prior to the evolution of the petro-chemical industry and more recently a wide range of alternatives have been studied in some depth, but only a very few have been commercially utilised. There are a number of reasons for this, including the following:

1. the technology is not available or is too expensive;

2. the raw materials are too expensive;

3. the market is small, either because there is no demand for the product, or because the market has not been fully exploited;

4. there is no organised production chain from the farm to the processing industry and/or retailer/wholesaler.

The aim of the biorefinery is to provide a link in the production chain which can break down some of the above barriers and hence aid commercialisation. In this project the main efforts were focused on integrated production and processing of existing agricultural crops including wheat and rape seed.

BACKGROUND

The concept of the biorefinery is as a locally-placed processing unit, constructed to separate and refine agricultural crops. During processing, the whole crop is separated into anatomical and chemical components. The objective is to meet specific quality requirements which may be set by the purchasers (end user) of the fractionated material. These can be met by varying the degree of processing and the technology applied, by combining intermediate products and by choosing from an assortment of crops. In principle this offers an economic advantage, since only the most valuable upgraded products have to be transported over a long distance; less valuable products can be used locally as feed and fuel.

APPROACH

Plant species where the whole crop can be used for commercial purposes and which are suitable for cultivation in the EU were selected (wheat and rapeseed). In order to achieve maximum capacity use of the biorefinery, methods for pretreatment and storage of unprocessed or wet-separated crops were developed and tested in an experimental plant, as were mechanical, physical and biochemical techniques for separation and refining of oil, protein, starch and fibre, as well as various by-products.

RESULTS

Technological advances were made which enabled efficient raw material processing, including fractionation, combination and upgrading of farm crops in small scale local processing units.

Economic analyses have shown that a wheat biorefinery producing baking flour, starch, gluten, wet by-products for feed, straw chips and straw meal will be profitable based on traditional harvesting technology. Hydrolysis of some of the by-products could significantly improve the economics if a market could be established.

High quality oil and protein were produced by enzymatic fractionation of rapeseed. However, the production costs at this small scale were too high to be profitable. If a niche market could be established for these very high quality products, the project could become economically feasible.

REPORTS

A number of reports relating to this project will soon be available. These include:

• Selection of plant species suitable for whole-crop utilisation and biorefining
• Intermediate storage and wet separation
• Milling and upgrading of wheat and barley into starch and feed fractions
• Fibre fractions from straw, lucerne and other crops
• Enzymatic extraction of oil, protein and starch
• Systems analyses and economic evaluations of integrated biorefinery systems
• The Whole Crop Biorefinery Project: concept, results, perspectives

CONCLUSIONS

Under present market conditions a biorefinery, at the scale and level of integration conceived for this project, cannot competitively produce bulk products. However, it can utilise its size, location and flexible production methods to develop niche markets, producing either tailor-made raw materials for further processing or speciality foodstuffs for direct sale. Hence, the concept is still at a precommercial level, requiring the creation of markets for the raw materials and products.

Marketing studies have shown that industry considers the following aspects of the biorefinery concept to be positive:

1. a controlled chain supplying only those products required (carbohydrates, proteins, fibres, etc), rather than the grain, straw or fibre crop, which allows the farmer to be paid according to the quality of the crop

2. by-product valorisation

3. environmental benefits and natural, safe products as required by consumer's.

On the negative side, it was felt that the biorefinery could only compete economically if the products were significantly better than those produced by conventional (bulk) processing.

PARTICIPANTS

United Milling Systems A/S, Novo Nordisk A/S,

Green Centre, Biotechnological Institute - Denmark)

Institute of Crop Science and Westfalia Separator AG - Germany

National Technical University Athens - Greece

Teagasc - Ireland

Silsoe Research Institute - UK