The national policy to promote electric vehicles is leading to an oversupply of ethanol and biodiesel. Whilst the national goal of achieving zero carbon emissions urges the oil and petrochemical industry to seek alternative carbon sources other than natural gas and oil. These bring the need of the country to put efforts to change biodiesel and ethanol into a product or reactant for the oil and petrochemical industry. Therefore, the "Catalysis Engineering Hub of Knowledge for Competitive and Sustainable Biorefinery Industry" project is seen as an essential project of our country. Also, It aligns perfectly with Strategy 3 of Thailand's Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Model, which emphasizes upgrading and developing Thai BCG industries to enhance sustainable competitiveness by employing science, technology, and innovation while placing importance on eco-friendly manufacturing systems. It is consistent with the 27th Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC COP27) held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, during 6-18 November 2022.
The Hub is equipped with capable human resources as shown by the highest number of research publications among ASEAN countries. Furthermore, the established agricultural, and oil and petrochemical industry infrastructures in Thailand are significant in size enough to support the research in these areas of the Catalysis Engineering Hub of Knowledge for Competitive and Sustainable Biorefinery Industry.
One of the unique characteristics of this project is close collaborations among the researchers from both government and private sectors on basic and applied research, respectively. Under an in-depth research, the Hub aims to discover suitable catalysts for converting ethanol, biodiesel or other biomass resources into products or precursors usable by the oil and petrochemical industry.
The project also includes the following supporting activities:
The advent of disruptive technology, new disease outbreaks, trade wars, and Ukraine-Russia War crisis bring about “New Normal" way of life. It spurs urgent necessity for Thailand to develop its own knowledge base that can be translated into commercially viable applications. It will enable self-reliance and flee us from the middle-income trap without causing natural degradation. The government policy regarding Net Zero encourages a shift of technological use towards eco-friendly technologies. Carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles contribute significantly to the global warming and air pollution, particularly PM 2.5 in densely populated cities. As a result, the adoption of electric vehicles is expected to rise in the near future aiming to reduce air pollution. A decline in conventional gasoline and diesel powered vehicles is also expected. So does the usage of liquid fuels.
In almost the past two decades, ethanol and biodiesel derived from agricultural products have been used to blend with or replace fossil fuels in order to reduce fossil fuel dependence and support farmers' incomes. Consequently, agricultural land use has been increased, particularly for sugarcane and palm oil production for ethanol and biodiesel feedstock. However, the new EV promoting policy will undoubtedly lead to a reduction in ethanol and biodiesel consumption in the future and eventually impacts the farmers who have invested in agricultural land and the overall agricultural economy.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to find ways to utilize ethanol and biodiesel as precursors for high-value chemicals, potentially replacing those derived from fossil fuels as well as to exploit biomass materials so as to add value and reduce waste from agricultural products as a long-term solution, in line with Thailand's BCG Economy Model.
Among the various products derived from biomass, ethanol has gained attention because it can be widely used as a chemical precursor in chemical industries. Moreover, ethanol is produced by fermenting the molasse and cassava, which are currently overplanted agricultural products. The main applications of ethanol are used as a solvent and an essential mixture for producing gasohol. However, the international policy of zero-emission vehicles by utilizing electric vehicles in order to reduce air pollution from burning fossil fuels affects the decrement of the ethanol demand significantly. Hence, the situation of ethanol being oversupplied is possible to take place in the future. To solve this problem, other routes are needed to consume the produced ethanol by transforming it into other high-value chemicals such as acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, butanol, and hydrogen. Transformation of the ethanol into other chemicals can be operated under an appropriate reaction condition and a suitable heterogeneous catalyst. Not only the oversupply of ethanol due to the announcement of the policy of zero-emission vehicles but also the problem of biodiesel oversupply should not be neglected. In the past few decades, the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) has been one of the important industrial crops in Thailand. The cultivated area for planting has been developed and expanded around the country,particularly in the south of Thailand and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
Palm oil is the source of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), which is a crucial source for “Biodiesel” production via transesterification with methanol. Although biodiesel was widely used around the country as a renewable energy, the policy of zero-emission vehicles declines the trend of biodiesel utilization in the near future. In contrast, palm oil production and storage have increased extremely. Based on the expertise of our group and the support from international collaboration, the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economy is established to transform these oversuppliedbiomasses into biochemicals such as surfactants, lubricants, substrates, food additives, perfumes, and pharmaceutical products. The objective of this group is mainly to develop cutting-edge technology. However, applying the FAMEs as the reactant for producing the biochemicals needs to consider (i) the novel effective catalyst for transforming FAMEs to other desirable chemicals and (ii) the sustainable process by consuming the hydrogen and the lowest energies to reduce the emission of CO2 which impact to the environment directly. Nevertheless, the FAMEs contain a higher amount of carbon compared to lignocellulose, sugar, and ethanol. Hence, using the FAMEs as the raw material is suitable, applicable, and sustainable for chemical production in the future. Another unavoidable problem after cultivating is the management of agricultural wastes, such as corncob, maize, bagasse, rice straw, husk, palm bunch, sawdust, and scrap paper. These agricultural wastes are also biomass that is of no value. Usually, the common approach to dealing with these agricultural wastes is incineration or supplying them as fuel in the biomass power plant. In 2013, there were 134 million tons of agricultural waste coming from the sugar cane, rice, palm oil, cassava, and corn industries, respectively. Among them, only 52% of the wastes obtained from maize, palm bunches, palm fiber and shell, as well as cassava pulp and peel, were used in the biomass power plant. On the one hand, the application window of other agricultural wastes, including rice straw, sugarcane leaf, corn leaf, cassava rhizome, palm leaf, palm tree, and palm empty bunch, is still narrow because of the cost of gathering raw material. Therefore, Thailand is a high-potential country for processing biomass by modifying the additional process without transporting it to the large processing plants, which require a high investment.
Typically, Lignocellulosic biomass comprises three primary constituents: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin [2]. Cellulose is a glucose polymer derivative with short connecting chains. Hemicellulose, on the other hand, is a polymer composed of different sugars including xylose, glucose, mannose, or galactose. Most short connecting chains are found in lignin. Lignin is a polymer that contains a large number of phenolic substances. Generally, lignocellulose can undergo a fermentation process to break down the polymer units in cellulose and hemicellulose from the raw material, yielding glucose. This glucose can then be utilized to produce ethanol via another fermentation process. As ethanol demand decreases, the reduction in ethanol production can prompt the transformation of ethanol processing into other products, such as ethyl ester compounds. The use of monosaccharides like glucose to manufacture other high-value chemicals such as furfural or hydroxymethylfurfural can serve as precursors for producing bioplastics. Due to current events in Thailand, there is an excess of raw materials in the market. Consequently, it is crucial to process monosaccharides into ethanol to address this surplus in ethanol production materials. Therefore, exploring techniques to convert lignocellulosic biomass and sugar into valuable products becomes imperative. This is essential for the agricultural sector in the country to mitigate potential risks stemming from future declines in ethanol fuel demand. These problem solutions involve using ethanol, biodiesel, and sugar as starting materials derived from biomass to produce high-value chemicals. Catalyst development is therefore extremely necessary, particularly in understanding the composition, function, and stability of the catalyst used in the process. Catalytic performance is typically determined by three main properties, including reactivity, selectivity, and stability. In the majority of research, the emphasis will be on enhancing the catalyst's efficiency in terms of speed and selectivity, with only slight interest given to the catalyst's stability. However, the stability of the catalyst still needs improvement. It is an important property that the industry values more than speed and selectivity. Therefore, this project focuses on enhancing catalyst stability by identifying the causes of catalyst deterioration from point to point. The aim is to make the catalyst developed from this research practically usable at the industrial level. This project will unite prominent local and international catalyst development experts, encompassing both experimental scientists in laboratories and computational scientists utilizing density functional theory simulations. The aim is to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing, utilizing important tools such as laboratory-scale experiments and computer simulations for in-depth property studies. Additionally, synchrotron light generators are advanced scientific tools required for further studying and selecting the most suitable catalysts for each process. Experimental techniques utilizing synchrotron light, crucial for studying catalysts, encompass the X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) technique. XAS offers atomic-level insights into catalysts under various conditions, including operando-XAS experiments. These experiments examine factors such as oxidation state, coordination number, and difference of interatomic distances within the catalyst structure, all of which significantly influence catalyst quality. The X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) is another important technique that aids in understanding the structure and surface conditions of catalysts, thereby influencing their quality and reaction outcomes. Due to the success of previous research projects, the initiative known as the CAT-REAC industrial project aims to pave the way and foster innovations in catalyst-based technology and chemical reaction engineering. It targets industries such as biodiesel, ethanol, and other sectors reliant on catalysts for sustainable industrial development. This project is jointly supported by the Office of the National Science Research and Innovation Board (NRCT). Five private companies are involved: Global Green Chemicals Company Limited, IRPC Company Limited, ThePK Ethanol Company Limited, PTT Company Limited, and SCG Chemicals Company Limited. The project ran from December 14, 2017, to May 31, 2021, with a total budget of 59,037,168 baht. It fostered strong cooperation between researchers and both upstream and downstream production sectors.
This project proposes to expand cooperation in knowledge transfer among expert researchers from different countries, in order to enhance the quality of knowledge suitable for developing efficient and stable catalysts in the processes of ethanol, biodiesel, and sugar conversion from biomass into starting materials for chemical production in the industry. Besides being a direction for producing bio-based chemical products sustainably for Thailand, it also serves as a Hub of Knowledge for future technology development in the ASEAN region. When successful, this project will benefit (1) the livelihoods of sugarcane, cassava, and oil palm farmers indirectly as the use of electric cars increases in the future, and (2) the petroleum and petrochemical industries by helping to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
To propose beneficial activities for related industries and to establish excellence in the ASEAN region as a hub of engineering knowledge in catalysis for the competitive and sustainable biorefinery industry (Catalysis Engineering Hub of Knowledge for Competitive and Sustainable Biorefinery Industry).
This knowledge center proposes a new collaborative mechanism by closely working together in parallel between the government sector, international universities, and the industrial sector. Since the ultimate goal of the project is to propose beneficial activities for related industries and to establish excellence at the ASEAN level, this project consists of the following six main activities:
This project proposes activities that include a new mechanism for transferring knowledge to industries and receiving knowledge from leading researchers at international universities. It also involves creating a research network within ASEAN with Thailand as the central knowledge hub.
- Conduct joint meetings to define research topics with agricultural and petrochemical industry companies.
- Provide fundamental knowledge consultation to companies, with subsequent applied research by the companies at the pilot-scale level.
- Select universities or research institutions abroad with expertise in the defined topics to collaborate on areas where Thailand lacks expertise.
- Send researchers and/or research assistants to receive specialized knowledge transfer in areas where Thailand lacks expertise, at universities or research institutions, allowing them to contribute to solving jointly defined problems.
- Establish a network with Thailand as the focal point, selecting universities or research institutions in ASEAN countries interested in research related to catalysts used in Biorefinery. Once this network is established, researchers will collaborate academically and seek future joint international funding opportunities.
- Develop a website to disseminate the achievements of the "Catalysis Engineering Hub of Knowledge for Competitive and Sustainable Biorefinery Industry" and promote awareness of collaboration opportunities between the agricultural and petrochemical industries.
- Organizing seminars or training sessions will be specifically focused on topics related to the jointly defined research topics. These sessions will include presentations of academic work to interested individuals beyond in-depth research according to the jointly defined topics. If all the aforementioned activities continue consistently for a period of 5 years, researchers believe that the "Catalysis Engineering Hub of Knowledge for Competitive and Sustainable Biorefinery Industry" will achieve success and become a true knowledge hub at the ASEAN level. This will lead to sustainable long-term operations.
Organizing seminars or training sessions for interested individuals within the country.
-These sessions focus solely on topics related to a jointly defined research topic. Academic works are presented to the general public, alongside in-depth research based on jointly determined problems. Carrying out all the aforementioned activities continuously for 5 years, the researcher is confident that a knowledge center for catalyst engineering for a highly competitive and sustainable biorefinery industry will be successful. It will truly become a center of knowledge at the ASEAN level and will be able to lead to sustainable operations in the long term.
In addition to becoming a Hub of Knowledge in ASEAN regarding catalyst engineering for the biorefinery industry, this project also brings benefits to:
The participating agencies in the project include:
(The private sector supports the project with a total of 1.9 million baht per year for 5 years)
Work Overview: