Next Generation Process for Bioethylene Production

To address growing concerns on the environmental impact of carbon emissions and societal demands for more sustainable production of everyday goods, transitioning to sustainable feed sources is a promising alternative to today’s petroleum-based feedstocks. In this presentation, Axens will provide an overview of a two-step technology pathway, licensed by Axens, to convert lignocellulosic biomass waste, an inedible second-generation feed source, into a sustainable bioethylene product that represents a chemically-equivalent replacement for petroleum-based ethylene.

The first step of this process utilizes Axens Futurol^® technology by depolymerizing and fermenting naturally-occurring sugars found in a variety of common second-generation biomasses to produce high purity bioethanol. In the Futurol^® process, the biomass feedstock undergoes destructurization to produce a consistent feed for the remainder of the process regardless of the original biomass fed to the unit, maximizing feedstock flexibility to accommodate site-specific availability, including seasonality. The critical steps of the Futurol^® technology have been demonstrated at semi-commercial scale, and the technology selected for commercialization at one European biorefinery. For the second step, Axens’ Atol^® technology provides a simple process to dehydrate varying qualities of bioethanol into polymer-grade bioethylene, while minimizing unintended byproduct formation. The Atol^® process utilizes water produced during the dehydration reaction as a liquid recycle to manage reactor temperature and achieve bioethylene yields very near maximum stoichiometric targets. The Atol^® process achieved its first successful startup in 2022 producing bioethylene from waste-based bioethanol. Easily integrated into this two-step pathway is the opportunity to capture CO₂ and decarbonize process energy demand through the use of electric heaters, resulting in the production of a carbon-negative bio-based ethylene.

Relying on a vast portfolio of proven, de-risked technologies, Axens offers low-carbon processes to meet today’s challenges of reducing GHG emissions in the production of sustainable chemicals.