Field-to-Plant Infrastructure
Feedstock logistics encompasses all the unit operations necessary to move biomass feedstocks from land to the biorefinery and ensures that the delivered feedstock meets the specifications of the biorefinery conversion process. The Biomass Program's feedstock logistics R&D is focused on developing and optimizing cost-effective integrated systems for collecting, storing, preprocessing and transporting a range of potential lignocellulosic feedstocks, including agricultural residues, forest resources and dedicated energy crops.
Cellulose is the primary component of plant cell walls - the fibrous, woody, generally inedible portions of the plant. The cell walls are comprised of long chains of sugars (carbohydrates), which can be converted to biofuels.
Biochemical conversion breaks down the cell wall through the introduction of enzymes or microorganisms in order to extract the sugars which are then converted to biofuels. Due to the complex structure of the cell wall it is more difficult to break down into sugars, making it more expensive to convert cellulose to biofuels than corn.
A key to developing cost-competitive cellulosic biofuels is reducing the cost and improving the efficiency of separating and converting cellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars. Current R&D focuses on high-yield feedstocks and more efficient enzymes that will advance the biochemical conversion processes.
Feedstocks for biochemical processes are selected for ideal composition, quality, and size. Feedstock logistics, adapted to serve biochemical processing pretreatment needs, are a key component of this technology's growth.