Counter-Current Suspension Extraction Process of Lignocellulose in Biorefineries to Reach Low Water Consumption, High Extraction Yields, and Extract Concentrations
The processing of large quantities of water in biorefining processes can lead to immense costs for heating, evaporation, and wastewater disposal. These costs may prohibit the exploitation of alternative products, e.g., xylooligosaccharides from straw, which are regarded as too costly. A new counter-current extractions method is proposed that aims at low solvent (water) consumption, as well as high yields and extract concentrations. This process was evaluated with suspension extraction experiments with steam pretreated wheat straw and the process window analysis based on a mass balance for a washing and a leaching scenario. The latter was conducted with two other suspension extraction processes as a comparison. The equilibration time was found to be well below 10 min. While the suspension extraction with and without recycling need to be designed to achieve a high yield or a high concentration and low solvent consumption, the proposed extraction method can reach all three simultaneously. Thus, this new process is evaluated as a potential method to spare water and downstream costs and allow new processing pathways in second-generation biorefineries.
