3

Developed but not marketed

Solicitud de patente

Novelty

Yes

Development of commercial equipment that operates with this technology.

The main advantage that this plant offers regarding existing hydrolysis plants on the market is the continuous work with supercritical water in high-speed reactors, which allows to reduce the reaction time several orders of magnitude. This results in much smaller equipment, which allows the decentralization of the process in addition the reduction of the cost of the equipment. Therefore, it is possible to implement a hydrolysis plant at all points where biomass is available. The second advantage of this process is the exclusive use of biomass and water as raw materials. Thus, possible pollution generated from chemical products and greenhouse gas emissions is prevented. The plant has been designed to efficiently operate from an energy point of view. Because of that, the implementation of superheaters (process elements widely used in the industry) allows to recover both the pressure energy and the kinetic energy, reducing therefore the plant’s global energy consumption. Finally, the use of hydrocyclonic reactors makes it possible to hydrolyze the biomass and simultaneously separate the solid fractions, basically lignin, which are not hydrolyzed. This fact creates a more efficient process and prevents the need for subsequent separation stages to recover the non-hydrolyzed lignin. It is concluded that the equipment presented in this patent is a sturdy and versatile commercial equipment with a large implementation market.

Premio Prometeo 2016 (Award organized by the University of Valladolid)

3303 - Chemical technology and engineering

Luis Vaquerizo Martín
Celia Martínez Fajardo