Bio-Sep Limited
Welcome to Bio-Sep
Bio-Sep Limited (BSL) was formed in December 2007 to exploit the use of surplus ligno-cellulostic material, an alternative to oil, for the production of fuel and platform chemicals for a wide variety of industrial purposes using cost efficient, low temperature, organic-supported step change technology. The “Bio-Sep Separation zxProcess” aims to respond to the UK and European commitment to increase the use of renewables to reduce the overall carbon footprint, and thereby the requirement for substitution, particularly as concerns for security exist while the UK is not self sufficient in coal, oil and natural gas. BSL’s innovative front end technlology meets this need through the separation of biomass without the release of carbon and can be integrated with existing processes for the production of chemicals and transport fuels. The process will focus on ‘green’ waste products, and encourage the use of low quality under-utilised rural land to produce biomasses, for separation into lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. The impact of these initiatives is forecast to generate a wide range of employment opportunities and a greater degree of regional self-sufficiency; while reducing dependency on distant suppliers and transport cost, in the ultimate production of everyday consumer goods.
Bio-Sep Separation Process
BSL has created, and filed a UK and European patent GB0821419.9, for a novel ‘clean’ technology for separating the key components of biomass: lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. These separated components have a broad range of potential downstream uses, in industries including biofuels, chemicals (replacing petro-chemical feedstock), paper and agriculture. More specific intermediate chemicals produced from the cellulose elements by this separation process, such as succinic acid, levullinic acid, lactic acid and furfural, have potential in markets including speciality chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, foodstuffs and energy.
In particular the “Bio-Sep Separation Process” aims to satisfy the following:
- Low production cost of operations and thereby cost of outputs; this will be achieved by recirculating solvents and re-using the catalyst and nano-membrane systems.
- High production yield with minimal waste products; the process is highly efficient and, of the small percentage recycled, the organic true ‘waste’ component for disposal as a soil enhancer is minimal.
- Fast reaction time and the use of non-corrosive chemicals will maximise component lifetime.
- Maximum‘green’ and ‘carbon’ benefits; the use of biomass sourced from: wood not required for other purposes and non-food crops; plus organic chemicals, low energy input and considerably reduced transportation, all contribute to this efficient and environment friendly BSL process..
- and, compared to existing technologies BSL Intellectual Property is:
- Technologically simple
- Demands minimal energy input, and generates a very low volume of waste
- Uses biomass material that may otherwise be not be used.
- Flexible insofar as the technology could be located close to the biomass source and substantially reduce the adverse environmental impact of transportation.
Prototype Demonstrator
BSL is now engaged in the specification, design and build of a prototype demonstration unit using knowledge gained from initial laboratory and other research, and create a small live operating system, which will be scaleable for commercial development, as a fixed (medium to large) continuous pilot production unit. By virtue of the simplicity of the process, the prototype demonstrator and ultimately the up-scaled production unit will use, where possible, equipment already proven in design, manufacture and industrial application. In the longer term the BSL process will be further advanced to full industrial production and commercialisation under licence, initially via a production demonstration processing plant capable of handling 50,000 tonnes per annum.Product Market Exploitation
Market assessments conducted by BSL indicate that a considerable opportunity may exist to focus upon selected parts of the secondary processing value chain, viz: lignin is marketable as a binder, dispersant, emulsifier and sequestrant for a wide range of industrial, building, agricultural and solid fuel processes, and other more specialised applications; cellulose and hemicellulose are widely used to produce ethanol, butanol and other chemicals including acids such as lactic, succinic and levulinic, and in the textile, paper, food and pharmaceutical industries. The potential demand from these industries for ‘green’ sourced inputs is both substantial in size and forecast to grow for a variety of old and new applications within the UK, Europe and markets throughout the rest of the world.The market size of ultimate ‘downstream’ consumers for BSL processed output to be used as feedstock is very diverse and substantial, with many branch route chemical applications. BSL believes that new products will be created as bio-science develops further, and therefore it should be well placed to respond to major global industrial customers, who have a stated aim that 15% of their ‘raw material’ inputs should come from ‘green’ renewable sources by 2015. It follows therefore that the BSL system could be well positioned to become the ‘black box’ at the front-end of all ‘green’ separation processing.