Pilot Scale Translational Facility for Biorefinery Concepts Phase I: Biobutanol Biorefinery

16. Introduction and Origin of the Proposal Why biochemical route to biofuels Second generation biofuels derived from agricultural biomass have significant potential for India in its quest for energy security and clean energy solutions. With more than 150 million tons of surplus lignocellulosic biomass available as agricultural residue, conversion of this biomass to more than to 50 million tons of renewable fuel annually, presents a great opportunity that the country must exploit over coming years. However, despite intense R&D and more than 100 pilot scale attempts, it has not been possible to arrive at mature, sustainable and cost effective technologies for conversion of biomass to biofuels. Several feedstock options and several technologies specific for variety of biofuels have been attempted and evaluated in great detail. While the choice of feedstock largely depends upon local geography and local agricultural produce, the choice of the technologies for one or the other biofuel is dictated by a variety of factors. There are several biomass feedstocks available across India. These can be classified into two categories: (a) Farm waste, and (b) Agri-industry waste. Of the more abundant and surplus farm waste are rice straw, wheat straw, cotton stalk, castor stalk, banana stem, corn stover and cobs etc. Agri-industry wastes include cane-bagasse, de-oiled rice bran, maize bran, and wheat bran, de-oiled oilseed cakes etc. All lignocellulose biomass is basically comprised of three major constituents: Cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Some biomass varieties may contain minor constituents which if extracted can improve economy of biofuel production provided the demand for the constituents matches the scale at which it may be co-produced with the intended biofuel. Conversion of biomass to a biofuel requires conversion of its constituents finally to a homogeneous biofuel that can be used as fuel as such or preferably blended with petro-fuels like gasoline and diesel. Two categories of routes are being developed: Thermochemical and Biochemical. Of the two conversion routes under development across the world for biomass to biofuels, the biochemical route has been finding increasing preference for a number of reasons which shall become clear as we go along this write-up. The most telling reason, in the Indian context however, is the size of an economically viable commercial biofuel production unit. Thermochemical plants being more capital intensive and complex they are strongly influenced by economy of scale. This limits deployment of thermochemical conversion technologies due to the biomass collection and transport logistics especially in a country like India more than countries like USA where farming is a mega-industry compared to typical Indian rural landscape with farmers holding much smaller units of land.

Biochemical pathway to biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass follows four steps: (1) Pretreatment; (2) Saccharification; (3) Fermentation; and (4) Purification. Pretreatment and saccharification steps are aimed at deconstruction of biomass to its sugar constituents, which are then converted to one or the other biofuel. Many attempts have been made to develop lignocellulosic biofuel technologies via biochemical route. There have been more than 100 plants put up over last two decades and many more continue to be put up. Hundreds of laboratories around the world, small and big, academic and industrial, have tried to break the production cost barrier. India too has been active in this area and after funding numerous individual R&D projects, a number of dedicated Centres have been established at different places. The DBT-ICT Lignocellulosic Platform Technology The DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences was established at Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology of Government of India. The purpose of the exercise was to create a Centre of Excellence with a capability to develop and assimilate indigenous biofuel technologies for the country. The mandate of the Centre, as highlighted through the laid objectives in the sanction letter and the MoU made between the DBT and ICT, goes beyond laboratory scale development of end-to-end technologies with a clear emphasis on generating scalable technologies and indeed scaling up these in collaboration with industry partners from time to time. The DBT-ICT Centre started functioning at full scale in 2009 and has since been continuously increasing its activity spectrum and intensity. In the time since 2009, the Centre has developed a platform technology for cost competitive conversion of lignocellulosic biomass (LBM) to its mono-sugar components and lignin. The DBT-ICT lignocellulosic sugars technology is quite different from any used or reported in the world and achieves a sugar production that would at commercial scale cost less than Rs 15/kg, a good Rs.10 cheaper than sugar from any other source. The salient features of this platform technology are:

- Simple scalable continuous technology for LBM fractionation - Separate nearly ‘homogeneous’ streams of glucose, pentose and lignin - All sugar yields >90% - Two-step ‘rapid’ continuous enzymatic saccharification - Reusable enzyme system: Cost reduction >5 fold - Biomass to sugars within 24h - Recovery of saleable lignin - Entire plant designed as continuous flow system

- All rapid processes: Low foot-print; low CAPEX - Cost effective separation of sugars if required in high purity for further specific transformations

Besides, the plant design includes novel solid handling equipment especially suited for handling biomass intermediates at all stages of processing. The technology developed in all its components has been implemented at a 10 ton/day pilot plant set up by India Glycols Limited at their Kashipur (Uttrakhand) site under limited ‘pilot’ license. The pilot plant has been functional since January 2012. The important performance indicators, in addition to the above list, and as projected to a commercial scale are as follows: Plant & Machinery USD 0.6/kg annual sugar production capacity

(US DOE acceptable figure for nth scale commercial plant is USD 1.5 /kg)

Cost of manufacturing USD 0.3/kg sugar (US DOE acceptable cost is USD 0.40/kg sugar)

Which biofuel from biomass Sugars derived from biomass can be converted to a variety of chemicals. Chemicals that have emerged as potential biofuels are alcohols (ethanol, butanol and pentenol); dimethyl ether (DME); furan derivatives; alkanes; and fatty acid esters. Four major considerations dictate the choice of a chemical to be used as biofuel: (a) its energy content (MJ/kg); (b) the process yield (kg for fuel/kg biomass); (c) overall cost of production; and (d) ease of distribution and its use in IC engines. Ethanol (or ethyl alcohol) has emerged as a major biofuel candidate even though it suffers from not being satisfactory on two of the four counts. It has low energy content (19.6 MJ/L compared to 32 MJ/L of gasoline), and is hygroscopic and corrosive making its transportation and storage difficult and limiting its blending in gasoline to 20%. An advantage with ethanol has been its ready availability as first generation biobased product on the back of proven and existing bioconversion technologies based on cane-sugar and starch. Yet, despite its better yields and a lower cost of production than other biofuels, ethanol as a second generation fuel from lignocellulosic biomass has failed to take-off in a big way. Thus, while ethanol as a biofuel is seemingly set to remain popular and grow for some time, it is the possibility of making other better biofuel from biomass that has caught the attention of many academic and industrial research laboratories. Butanol better than ethanol Butanol (or n-butyl alcohol) is considered as a better biofuel option than ethanol. With a higher calorific value of 29.2 MJ/L butanol is also more readily blendable with gasoline with lesser distribution and storage problems due to its lower hygroscopicity and corrosiveness. Consequently, huge efforts are being made around to world to develop viable technologies for bio-manufacture of bio-butanol. Bio-butanol i.e. butanol made through sugar fermentation was a developed technology during world wars intended for butanol production to be used as solvent or making chemicals. The

technology, called ABE fermentation on account of co-production of Acetone and Ethanol with Butanol, was an established technology with an overall solvent yield of about 0.30 kg/kg sugars and butanol being produced in a yield of 0.23 kg/kg sugars. But with the rapid development of petro-route for butanol and other C4 chemicals, bio-butanol production became unviable and was discontinued. However, the interest in bio-butanol as a second generation biofuel based on biomass has revived over last one decade for its use of biofuel as well as for production of ‘green’ chemicals and materials. Other biomass derived liquid biofuel options under development have been DME, alkanes, higher alcohols like pentenol, terpenes and fatty acid esters. The yields and productivities of these biofuels today are too low to be of any immediate commercial interest. Second Generation Biobutanol Technologies : Advantages and Disadvantages The advantages of bio-butanol as biofuel have been mentioned above. These are higher calorific value comparable to gasoline and diesel; low hygroscopicity and corrosiveness; and easy blendability with petro-fuels. Another advantage of biobutanol production is use of bacilli like clostridia that can feed on any sugar substrate unlike ethanol producing yeasts that can only assimilate glucose. The disadvantages are more significant. Clostridia strains, the more popular work horse for butanol production are strict anaerobes and hence difficult to handle at large scale. Further, the best possible yield of butanol on sugars is much lower at 0.23kg/kg sugars compared to ethanol yield of 0.5kg/kg sugars. In addition, fermentation productivity and titers are also low thereby increasing the cost of production to almost double of that of ethanol. Thus, whereas one kilogram of sugars can give up to 0.5L of ethanol, butanol that can be obtained at best is less than 0.25L. With the cost of sugars around Rs. 25/kg at best (from any source: first or second generation) the contribution of sugar to the cost of butanol is also twice that of ethanol thus making it unviable as biofuel. Biobutanol thus can be cost effective as fuel only if sugars become available at less than Rs. 12/kg which seems unlikely to happen in the immediate future. Another way to make butanol cost effective is increasing the yield of butanol on sugars beyond 0.35 kg/kg using alternative and engineered microorganisms. This approach has been the central theme of several but yet unsuccessful attempts made through use of synthetic biology. The Concept of Biobutanol Biorefinery Definition: A biorefinery can be defined as a production facility that is a zero-waste producing collection of processes that utilizes renewable biological or bio-based sources to produce several products, whereby each component of the renewable biological or bio-based source is converted or utilized in a manner to add value, and hence sustainability to the entire processing technology.

As lignocellulosic ethanol and butanol technologies struggle to match the cost of petro-fuels, it is imperative that one looks at processing biomass to more than one product at a single location to lend economic viability to the technology and product. Lignocellulosic biomass is a complex multicomponent resource that can lead to more than one product. Design of a biofuel production facility as a multiproduct biorefinery is likely to be the key to emergence of an ecologically and economically sustainable biomass derived biofuel. Thus, besides working on bioconversion processes for biomass to liquid biofuels, technologies also need to be developed for conversion of the biomass components to other value added products. In this scenario there is a need to design a lignocellulosic butanol plant that fractionates and deconstructs biomass to its components namely, sugars and lignin, and campaigns these for conversion to biofuel as well as several products more valued than biofuel. Diversion of 10 to 30% of the sugars produced from biomass can be used for production of chemicals values higher than fuel butanol. The Proposal: A Pilot Scale Translational Facility A biorefinery built around lignocellulosic feedstocks is an accepted but yet unproven concept. Even though one can do a detailed on-paper analysis of what combinations of products can ensure better economic viability of the enterprise if scaled up, it is necessary to establish what kind of combinations of respective technologies can be brought under a common platform to ensure better returns on the capital invested. In other words, it is necessary to prove at a reasonable scale that a common plant can produce multiple value-added products at capacities dictated by economics and demand-supply dynamics while continuing to produce a biofuel cost competitively. Further, since it is difficult to envisage at the beginning the right or not-so-right combinations of products and technologies, it is advisable to build a demo-scale or pilot-scale biorefinery that is flexible enough to incorporate changing products and technologies with time. Needless to say, the technologies that will come to be tried at such a pilot scale biorefinery will have come through rigorous laboratory trials. The DBT-ICT Centre has been engaged in development of technologies for products that can be co-produced with a biofuel. Further, the Centre also has capacity to incorporate within this framework any such technology developed at other institutional or industrial laboratories. It is therefore proposed that Centre erects a translational facility aimed at scaling up and demonstrating the concepts of multiproduct biorefinery. It is also desired that such a facility is located close to the Centre and is operated by an industrial outfit that not only has the capability to run and manage chemical plants on daily basis, but also has significant stake in taking the biorefinery concept to the market through putting up production plants for itself and for others.

The present proposal is therefore aimed at designing and erecting a pilot scale translational facility that is built in a flexible modular manner around the central theme of biomass deconstruction technology developed by the DBT-ICT Centre. This modular facility will at any given time be able to co-produce a number of biofuels and chemicals from a single feedstock and assess the overall sustainability and economic viability of the concept at a reasonable scale and also generate enough data for further scaling it to commercial level. The first concept that will be implemented at the proposed translational facility will be that of Biobutanol Biorefinery. Once the first concept has been taken to its logical conclusion, the facility will be used to implement and assess other biorefinery concepts developed within the DBT-ICT Centre as well as those assembled from other research laboratories. Phase I : Biobutanol Biorefinery As discussed above production of biobutanol alone is not attractive based on available or known technologies. We have estimated that designing production of biobutanol in the framework of a biorefinery will overcome the disadvantage of high production cost of biobutanol by co-production of higher value products. In Phase I, the Biorefinery Translational Facility will be used to test viability of a Biobutanol Biorefinery. The Phase 1 Biobutanol Biorefinery proposal is therefore built around technologies developed by the DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences, Mumbai and Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai. It is proposed hereby that the DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences will design and build a demo-scale biorefinery to produce the following five products from agro-waste and agro-industry waste:

1. n-Butanol 2. Acetone 3. Natural Xylitol 4. Furfural 5. Bio-Vanillin

Of the above, technologies for production of butanol, acetone and furfural have been developed by The DBT-ICT Centre, while xylitol and vanillin technologies have been developed by Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. As stated above, the production of the above five products will be based on sugars derived from deconstruction of biomass using the DBT-ICT platform technology for biomass sugars. Biomass feedstock used will be from rice straw, wheat straw, cane-bagasse, maize bran, rice bran, and wheat bran.

Choice of Products and Capacity of proposed biorefinery The primary objective of the project in Phase I is to demonstrate the economic and technical viability of production of n-butanol alongside the other four selected products. Butanol today finds significantly large use as chemical feedstock as well as solvent. If economically possible to be used as biofuel, its demand will multiply manifold. Acetone and furfural are also used as chemical feedstock and solvents. Xylitol is an industrial sweetener and largely produced through chemical catalytic hydrogenation of xylose. Xylitol, however, will be produced at the biorefinery through fermentation route and thus will classify as ‘natural’ xylitol. Vanillin is one of the most widely used food flavors. Natural vanillin from vanilla flowers or pods is priced at about USD 4000/kg. Synthetically produced vanillin sells at USD 15/kg and is produced worldwide in excess of 20,000 tons a year. Privi Biotechnologies has developed a fermentation process for bio-vanillin production at a price that can challenge the synthetic vanillin market. However, if produced as a sole product from biomass, the technology becomes non-sustainable. It is proposed that the Biobutanol Biorefinery will be tested for sustainability and economic viability through co-production of the five selected products. Given below are: (A) Global and Indian market demand-supply positions of each of the five products, and (B) Overall mass balance on the process flow diagram for the proposed biorefinery designed to process 2 ton of biomass/day. (A) Global and Indian market statistics

Biobutanol Biobutanol is a direct 'Drop-In' replacement for gasoline and has significant potential as an alternative fuel blend with ethanol (in E-85 as a replacement for gasoline). Bio-butanol has the potential to substitute for both ethanol and bio-diesel in the biofuel market estimated to be worth $247 billion by 2020. Bio-based butanol also offers a renewable alternative to petro-based chemical-grade butanol - a $10 billion global market. Butanol is a key building block chemical in the $85 billion coatings, adhesives and inks market and an intermediate in the $700 billion global polymers market. In 2008, the global market for 1- butanol was 2.8 million tons, estimated to be worth approximately $5 billion. The average growth is expected to be 3.2% pa with demand concentrated in North America (28%), Western Europe (23%) and North East Asia (35%). The production capacity of world n-butyl alcohol is 3,568,000 tons/year, the output is 2,944,000 tons/year i.e. operating rate of 82.5%. The top 3 regions with large production capacity are Asia, North America and Western Europe, which respectively take up 38%, 31% and 18% in world total production capacity. The apparent consumption was 2,944,000 tons/year in 2010. The major consumer is Asia, whose consumption is about 53% of world total consumption and then there are North America and Western Europe, whose consumption respectively are 22% and 19%. Till date in India there are three units in the country having combined capacity 28000 TPA. India import 11000-14000 tons n-butanol

Xylitol Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar with a wide array of interesting applications. The most significant fact about xylitol is the possibility of its manufacturing from biomass based pentose sugar, an abundantly available waste material in India. Xylitol with the sweetening property matching that of sucrose (sugar) enjoys good applications as sugar substitute for food processing industry. Another significant property of xylitol has been the prevention of dental cavity. In early 90s, the global xylitol production has been reported as around 5000 tons in the world. Around 95% of the world's production belongs to two firms from Finland and the balance quantity is distributed among four firms in Japan, one in China and two in Switzerland. At present, China is the biggest xylitol production country in the world, with total capacity of 78,000t/a in 2009. The current global market stands at around $400-500 Million per annum, while the US market is estimated $159 Million. Danisco, a Danish company is the world leader in production of Xylitol and is the only producer from western region with almost 60% of the total market share. Second largest is the China based company Futaste. Current global demand for Xylitol is estimated to be about 200,000 MT per annum valued at over $ 500 Million per annum. Biovanillin The total worldwide demand for natural and synthetic vanillin during 2011-2012 is estimated at around 16,000-18000 tons. China is one of the largest producers and suppliers of vanillin in the world with production capacity of 7,500TPA. The demand in 2000-2001 was around 12,000 tons but only 1800 tons natural vanillin was produced and remaining was produced by synthetic route (1). Compound annual growth rate in consumption during the period 2000-2012 was 4%. Major application segments in India are dairy products, ice creams, confectionery and sugars containing vanilla, biscuits, pastry, cakes, French pastry cream and Beverages. Demand for vanillin is estimated to reach 20,000 tons by the year 2014-15, at an average growth rate of 4% per annum. Beginning in 2000, Rhodia began marketing biosynthetic vanillin prepared by microbial route on ferulic acid extracted from rice bran at $700/kg, this product, sold under the trademarked name Rhovanil Natural, is not cost-competitive with petrochemical vanillin, which sells for around $15/kg (2) but it is cheaper than vanillin from beans $3000-4000/kg. India is currently import 800 tons of synthetic vanillin and producing 150 tons (3 tons natural vanillin) of cured beans, which is likely to rise to 400 tons by 2015 as many growers in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have taken up vanilla cultivation as monocrop. India’s domestic market for vanillin is completely dominated by synthetic vanillin due to its low price and easy availability. India imports around 700-800 tons of synthetic vanillin, which is mostly consumed by food and beverages industry (200 tons), ice-cream industry alone consuming about 130 tons. Furfural Furfural is a chemical with significant potential opportunities. The current global demand for furfural is about 38 MMT per annum. China plays a dominant role in production as well of use of furfural. With 80% of global capacity and 72% of world consumption, China will continue to drive the overall market. Presently major application of furfural is in making furfural alcohol which is used in foundry industry. Furfural also has applications in flavors and fragrances

industry. Privi has been working on a product with furfural as the starting raw material. Global requirement for furfural in flavor industry is estimated to be 10,000 MT per annum. World production of furfural is 30000TPA. China is the dominant player in the world furfural market. With 80% of global capacity and 72% of world consumption, China will continue to drive the overall market. Furfuryl alcohol prices have a fairly broad fluctuation bandwidth, mainly because about 40% of the buyers are small domestically operating companies that buy the material on the spot market. A more detailed market analysis of the five products in given in Annexure 1 attached as a separate pdf file. (B) Process Flow Diagram and Overall Mass Balance Please see Annexure 2 for Figure 1 for the Process Flow Diagram and Table 1 for overall mass balance. The biorefinery plant will be designed to process 2000kg biomass per day, and will be able to produce the five products in a manner that can be manipulated. Thus, in one option all the sugars can be fermented to butanol and acetone. In another option, all hexose and non-xylose pentose sugars can be used for butanol+acetone production while xylose can be divided between xylitol and furfural manufacture. With a projected capacity of 100 fold i.e. with 200 tons biomass processed/day, a commercial plant will be able to manufacture the following: 4950 ton/year Bio-butanol 2400 ton/year Acetone 3600 ton/year Furfural 4500 ton/year ‘Natural’ Xylitol 600 ton/year Bio-vanillin Technology details The process block diagram in Annexure 2 depicts the technologies that will be used. These, as stated above, have been developed at the DBT-ICT Centre and at Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai. More discussion on technologies that have been developed and will be deployed in the proposed biorefinery is given in subsequent sections below. Features of the DBT-ICT biomass fractionation technology have already been stated in the beginning. Innovations that form part of the other developed technologies are as follows:

1. Two stage butanol fermentation for higher productivities (DBT-ICT Innovation: To be patented shortly)

2. Rapid selective catalytic dehydration of xylose to furfural (DBT-ICT Innovation: To be patented shortly)

3. Novel fermentation route for xylose to xylitol (Privi Biotechnologies Innovation: Patent applied)

4. Novel isolation and purification technology for xylitol from fermentation broth (DBT-ICT Innovation: Patent applied)

5. Novel bioconversion route for manufacture of bio-vanillin (Privi Biotechnologies Innovation: Patent applied)

The list of applied patents on which the biorefinery concept is based is as given below:

1) Method for production of fermentable sugars from biomass; WIPO publication No.: WO

2010/137039; Indian Application No.:1299/MUM/2009 2) Fractionation of Biomass; WIPO publication No.: WO/2011/154967; Indian Application

No.: 1762/MUM/2010 3) A process for recovery of xylitol with high yield and purity; Indian Application Number:

421/MUM/2012 4) Continuous biotransformation of substituted aromatic carboxylic acids to their selective

aldehydes and/or alcohols; Indian Application No: 2497/MUM2012 5) A selective microbial production of xylitol from biomass based sugar stream with

enriched pentose component; Indian Application No.: 2495/MUM/2012 6) Microbial biotransformation of aromatic acids to their reduced carbon aromatic acids;

Indian Application No: 2496/MUM/2012 Economics of the Bio-butanol Biorefinery The capacity of the proposed bio-butanol biorefinery is 2000kg of biomass/day. An nth plant can be expected to work at least 100 times this capacity i.e. for processing 200 ton biomass/day. The production capacities for the five products can, as one of the options, be as stated above. There can however, be several options for campaigning the production capacities. For example, all of the sugars can be used for production of butanol and acetone. But as pointed out earlier this is a loss making proposition given the possible butanol yield on sugars. Annexure 3 lists three scenarios and compares the biorefinery economics in these cases. The estimation of cost of production (excluding CAPEX costs) is based on kilo-scale runs made for the products at DBT-ICT Centre and the R&D laboratory of Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. The three scenarios are: Case A: Production of only butanol and acetone Case B: Biorefinery Production of butanol, acetone, furfural, and xylitol Case C: Biorefinery Production of butanol, acetone, furfural, xylitol, and bio-vanillin

It is estimated that Case A of making butanol and acetone alone makes a loss of Rs. 55 crore per year. Case B biorefinery makes a profit of Rs. 5 crore, whereas Case C biorefinery makes a profit of Rs. 192 crore. The Annexure 2 also presents return on investment in the two biorefinery cases. The basic concept behind the proposed biorefinery concept has been value addition through the xylose fraction of biomass. There can be several case scenarios and while the production scales of furfural and xylitol will be largely dictated by their global and national demand, it may be possible in future cases to divert part of the glucose as well to value-added products. It may be argued that the demand for butanol as biofuel will outstrip by far the demand for products like xylitol and furfural even if demand for these runs into several thousand tons a year. The counter argument is the possibility of making more than 50 products from sugars alongside butanol whereby the combined demand of all these will match that of butanol as biofuel. Manufacturing of these 50 odd products (e.g. succinic acid, levulinic acid, HMF, lactic acid, and so on) will be shared amongst different bio-butanol manufacturers each attaining their own economic viability through their own specific mix of products from the 50 odd ones. Conclusions The discussion above was intended to bring about the following conclusions:

o Manufacture of advanced biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass alone is not economically viable.

o The Biorefinery concept with a proper choice of co-products can make biofuel production economically viable

o Co-production of the five products for which the technologies have been indigenously developed offers attractive economics at commercial scale

o The proposed Bio-butanol Biorefinery when erected and operated will validate the technologies developed at pilot scale and may lead to commercially viable plants

o The translational facility erected and commissioned will pave way for trying out more biorefinery product combinations in time

(A) Rationale of the Proposal Increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions have forced industrial community to look for bio-based fuels and chemicals or together termed as renewables. This has fueled intense R&D efforts for developing relevant technologies both in academic and industrial laboratories. The basic and unifying factor behind of all renewable technologies under development has been identification of an appropriate and truly renewable and cheap bio-based resource. It is believed that significant replacement of fossil resource base with bio-based feedstock is possible if we use the available ‘surplus’ agri-residues without turning towards high biomass yielding crops in the near future. The list of biofuels and ‘green’ (i.e. biobased derived) chemicals for which pilot or commercial scale plants have been put up includes: ethanol; n-butanol; iso-butanol; acetic acid; lactic acid; succinic acid; acetone; furfural; xylitol; polyhydroxyalkaloates; propanediols; ethylene and propylene; isoprene; acrylic acid; and adipic acid. It is however important to note that almost all these plants are either based on first generation renewables i.e. starch or cane derived sugars, or glycerol derived from tri-glyceride hydrolysis. Further, all the plants have been built to produce the single targeted product. With the cost of cane and starch sugar being almost 0.5 USD/kg and glycerol being even more expensive, most chemicals have not been able to compete with those produced from petro-feedstock, and have attempted to survive by the tag of being ‘green’. It is established beyond doubt that future biofuels and chemicals must be derived from second generation bio-based lignocellulosics. With the cost of both first as well as second generation feedstock derived sugars being in the same range, it becomes imperative to look for ideas that will help mankind manufacture increasing volumes of renewables. Lignocellulosic biomass is a complex mixture of three major components. These three components can be converted individually into many products at a single manufacturing site leading to the concept of biorefinery. Many of the chemicals listed above and currently manufactured from first generation sugars, can be very well manufactured from lignocellulose derived sugars. A judicious combination of products has the potential to make the concept of biorefinery far more economically attractive than manufacture of the same products in single product plants. Despite the attractiveness of a lignocellulosic biorefinery, there has been no attempt made in this direction anywhere in the world. The principle reason has been the lack of a technology that cost effectively deconstructs lignocellulosic biomass into its individual monomeric constituents. DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences at Mumbai has developed lignocellulosic sugars technology and validated it at demonstration scale. This technology platform can now be used

to convert the monomeric sugars into a variety of chemicals including biofuels. The Centre therefore has been engaged in development of a number of technologies that can be co-produced with biofuels from biomass. A number of technologies have reached maturity and are ready to be scaled up. Several more options are likely to emerge over next 3-5 years. In order to facilitate validation of the developed technologies for bio-based fuels and chemicals at a scale that leads to their commercial production, it is necessary that the Centre builds a technology translation facility in its close vicinity and use this to validate the evolving technologies for subsequent commercialization by interested industries. Since this translational facility will be a full-fledged mini-biochemical plant, it is necessary that the DBT-ICT Centre partners with an industry that operates the plant on regular basis and improvises and adapts it with time for new emerging technologies for different chemicals and biofuels. It is therefore proposed that the DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences is sanctioned a technology translational facility in the form of a modular & flexible demo-biorefinery in Mumbai or in immediate vicinity of Mumbai. It is further proposed that the said translational facility be built by the DBT-ICT Centre in partnership with Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. who have agreed to not only provide the required land and building in Mumbai, but also operate the plant on regular basis and bear all associated costs. Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd., besides the above mentioned support, also bring to the table two major technologies that will use biomass derived components to manufacture two products to begin with in addition to the three products developed by the DBT-ICT Centre.

(B) Hypothesis

The following hypotheses will be validated at the proposed technology translation facility:

1. Manufacture of multiple products from a single biomass feedstock can offer better economy of production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals at a single site.

2. The concept of biorefinery can make biobased fuels and chemicals competitive to the petro-based ones.

3. A technology translation facility designed and operated in a modular and flexible manner offers the possibility of validating continuously evolving indigenous biofuel and biochemical technologies.

4. Such a technology translational facility built to operate at reasonable scale can provide relevant techno-economic data for further scale up to commercial scale plants.

(C) Key Questions The key questions that will be answered as a result of setting up of the biorefinery plant in the form of a technology translation facility are as follows:

a. Can there be a judicious choice of biofuels and chemicals which, if co-produced at a single plant based on an agricultural waste biomass feedstock, can turn a economically non-viable concept into a viable concept.

b. Can one build and operate a translational facility that has the capability to adapt to evolving technologies over say ten years.

c. Can there be enough combinations of biofuels and bio-based chemicals to permit mega-

scale production of biofuels alongside chemicals more than ten times smaller in demand but more than 1.5 to 2 times higher in value.

Attempts will be made under the proposed project to answer the above questions that are going to have large impact on climate and health of our planet.

Current Status of Research & Development in the area The present proposal has two components, one a long-term relevance, and the other short-term. These are:

a. Setting up a technology translational facility for biorefineries b. Validating the concept of Bio-butanol biorefinery in Phase 1 at the translational facility

The current status in the country and elsewhere are therefore discussed below under two heads. Under the third head, a brief discussion is included on status of technologies for other products i.e. acetone, furfural, xylitol and bio-vanillin.

a. Status on Translational Biorefinery Facility International Status The recent blue paper from Morgan & Stanley (3) highlights the status of the world biochemical production. A large number of companies are seen involved in intense research towards renewable chemical feedstocks and chemicals. These all companies though concentrate on value-add ‘green’ chemicals rather than biofuels. Biofuel companies on the other hand, tend to concentrate of production of biofuels alone and do not yet seem to realize the concept of biorefinery for co-production of ‘green’ chemicals. In general, the space of a biofuel biorefinery has been so far limited to plants that co-produce biofuels and other forms of energy e.g. power and heat. Major attempts at pilot scale biofuel biorefineries have been made by Inbicon in Kalundborg, Denmark and Zeachem in Oregon, USA. The former diverts hemicellulose as animal feedstock and uses lignin as fuel, while the latter manufactures acetic acid, ethyl acetate alongside ethanol as biofuel. A number of R&D outfits like MBI, Michigan; Amyris, Berkeley; Gevo, Minnesota; and Metabolic Explorer, France have built pilot scale plants that are designed to validate biorefinery approaches to manufacture of biofuels and chemicals. Of these MBI in Michigan is the only facility that is run in close collaboration with a University namely the Michigan State University. It is also noteworthy that most of the industrial attempts to make biofuel biorefineries have turned to chemicals only attempts in view of the low viability on biofuel manufacturing. National Status There are no such attempts made in India. Some companies like Reliance Industries and Tata Chemicals have started serious work in the area and may come up with chemical manufacturing

bio-based refineries with low or no emphasis on biofuels. Many universities have also been toying with the idea, but there is no specific attempt that demonstrates a holistic approach in bio-based refineries.

b. Status on Biobutanol Biorefinery International Status There are almost a dozen companies that are seemingly ready with bio-butanol technologies. Major ones are Gevo, USA; Cobalt Biotechnologies, USA; Green Biologics, UK; Butamax, USA; and Butalco, Switzerland. However, most technologies (maybe with the exception of Gevo) are single product technologies and based on first generation sugars as raw material. There is no report of any kind of any butanol biorefinery being in place or planned in foreseable future. Various laboratories have been actively involved in ABE fermentation using product improvement strategies. Genetic manipulation and metabolic engineering of C. acetobutylicum along with improvements in fermentation for increased solvent production are subjects of research. Lee et al., 2012 (4) has reported metabolic engineering of Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 that produces isopropanol-butanol-ethanol (IBE). Detailed proteomics profiles have also been worked out for Clostridium acetobutylicum and it is expected to contribute significantly to the understanding of butanol production from glucose and xylose substrate in the ABE fermentation process (5). Along with molecular biology, fermentative and separation technology is also used being extensively researched for increase yields and decreasing toxicity of butanol during fermentations. Lin et al. 2012 (6) has proposed use of novel macroporous resin for separation of biobutanol from broth. Membrane-assisted (7) and pervaporation based (8) extractive fermentations are also being experimented. Different modes of fermentations as fed batch, continous, two stage, immobilized PBRs are being tested for increasing the overall productivities for ABE fermentations. Indian Status A number of research and industrial laboratories have been working on butanol fermentation. The main academic labs are Department of Microbiology of University of Delhi (South Campus) and ICGEB, New Delhi. While the former have worked on traditional ABE fermentation, the latter are developing synthetic biology approaches that will take some time to be viable. Reliance Industries have been also developing bio-butanol technology but this has so far been unviable economically unless they also decide, as in the proposed case, to go for a biorefinery approach.

c. Status on other Products Acetone: There is no report of anyone producing acetone through biological route as most butanol technologies being commercialized are based on engineered microbes that produce much lower or no acetone. However, bio-production of C3 compounds has significant potential for future of renewables in chemical industry. Furfural: Furfural today is indeed manufactured as a biobased product. The technology involves subjecting the entire lignocellulosic biomass to acidic dehydration using concentrated sulfuric acid and steam distilling furfural. The technology wastes the cellulose and lignin present in biomass and is non-friendly to environment. China is the major manufacturer of furfural in the world. Xylitol: Most of the xylitol is manufactured in China again as a single product from biomass through chemical catalysis. Biomass is acid treated to obtain hydrolyzed hemicellulose that is purified and catalytically hydrogenated to xylitol. Currently, most of manufacturers adopt chemical method, with corncobs or xylose as raw materials. A number of reports exist of attempts to make natural xylitol through fermentation routes. In 2009, Thomson Biotech (Xiamen) PTE Co., Ltd. and China BBCA Group Corp. started to use fermentation method to produce xylitol. A couple of international companies (Zuchem, Chicago, USA; and Shanghai Yanda Biotechnology Company Ltd., China) produce xylitol by fermentation but there are no reports of any unit operating on biorefinery concept. Tata Chemicals in India have developed a technology that produces xylitol from xylose through fermentation although it is not clear if they will deploy a multiproduct biorefinery for the production of xylitol. Bio-vanillin: Rhodia Chemicals of France first introduced the fermentation based bio-vanillin in the market about four years ago using the technology developed originally by Givaudan, France. The company remained the only producer of the product with a significant patent portfolio on the subject till 2011 when Symrise, Germany also introduced bio-vanillin in the market . Privi Biotechnologies (ICT’s partner in this project) has developed a new fermentation route to bio-vanillin though based on the same starting material i.e. ferulic acid derived from lignin content of biomass. If priced lower i.e. USD 200/kg the product is expected to wrest substantial market from Rhodia and Symrise, as well as synthetic product market. There is no manufacturing of any vanillin in India though SH Kelkar Ltd. have been considering putting the plant for synthetic vanillin.

Relevance of the Proposed Project

Why Biofuels from Biomass The need for alternative and renewable energy is today as relevant and acute to India as to any other country in the world. Intense research and development activity is witnessed in many parts of the world notably the developed countries. However, the mounting pressure on developing economies to cut down their green house gas emissions and find renewable energy sources for their needs instead depending on imports, emerges from the dual need of energy security and cleaner fuels. It is expected that energy demand in India will rank among the top three in the world by the year 2030. It is important that at this time in our history it is realized by both developed and developing economies that the problems faced in this energy crisis is a joint responsibility of all nations and that joint efforts should be made to solve local as well as global energy problems. One of the promising source, though not the most efficient in terms solar energy capture, is biomass in the form of terrestrial plants. This biomass can be converted to one or the other energy forms, including liquid biofuels. Several reports (e.g. prepared for/by National Thermal Power Corporation, India and TIFAC under Department of Science & Technology) suggest that the quantum of ‘available’ lignocellulosic waste is in the range of 150 to 200 Million metric tons a year. All of this biomass if converted to, say bioethanol or hydrocarbon fuel, can provide a minimum of 50 to 70 Million tons of biofuel that can potentially fully replace gasoline and diesel consumption today in the country if made available at competitive price. Why Green Chemicals Besides replacing fossil fuels, there is need to reduce carbon footprint of fossil resource derived chemicals. Thus there is intense activity across the world to move towards ‘green chemicals and materials’. Green chemistry today is a buzz phrase in the chemical sector. The desire to diversify feedstocks, capitalise on consumer demand for green products and manage product economics and legislative risks has put green chemistry firmly on the agenda at board level. Among the many facets to green chemistry, the main focus is on substitution of fossil-based materials with renewables. Renewable chemicals are already a USD 40 Billion market. Countries with large agricultural base are poised to enjoy ‘first-mover’ advantages if they are proactive on technology development front. Biorefinery Concept: Co-production of biofuel and green chemicals Despite being need of the hour, the biomass derived biofuels are finding it difficult to penetrate the market due to higher cost of manufacturing compared to petro-fuels. Similarly, many chemicals are finding it difficult to compete against corresponding petro-products at level playing field. There is generally reluctance from consumers to pay higher for ‘green’ products. In this scenario, one way out is making serious attempts in R&D to bring down the

manufacturing costs. This is an on-going process and indications are that it will be at least another decade when we may see breakthroughs that could make stand-alone production of biobased chemicals and fuels economically attractive. Another way on the other hand is to build biorefineries whereby all different components of a renewable feedstock e.g. lignocellulosic biomass from agricultural residues, are efficiently converted into biofuels and chemicals. This approach has so far found few takers due to lack of a platform technology that fractionates and deconstructs biomass into individual components. The DBT-ICT Centre’s platform technology for biomass deconstruction offers an excellent opportunity to setup world’s first chemical biorefinery and not only position India on global scene as a technology provider, but also meet our own chemical and biofuel needs based on indigenous renewable resources. The DBT-ICT Centre has also developed several product technologies based on biomass derived sugars. These technologies, coupled, with technologies developed by other industries and institutes, can be validated under a multi-product biorefinery concept. This however requires setting up of a technology translational facility where such validations of techno-commercial viability can be carried out. Such a facility, as proposed in this proposal, will be first of its kind in the world and will be immensely useful in generating leads that will be exploited by indigenous industry to make the country self-reliant in chemical and fuel production besides reducing carbon emissions. It is further proposed that Bio-butanol Biorefinery be used as the first case to demonstrate its viability at the proposed biorefinery technology translation facility.

Outcome of the Proposed Project The outcomes of the proposed project can be enumerated as follows:

1. India’s first modular biorefinery plant based on lignocellulosic biomass will be setup as a technology translation facility.

2. First bio-butanol biorefinery will be operational at the facility in Phase 1 and if the estimates are validated, the demonstrated technology will lead to commercial scale plants in India and abroad using Indian technology.

3. The DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences, along with other Bioenergy Centres and

laboratories in the country will be able to validate their biofuel and biochemical technologies at the proposed technology translational facility, and thereby lead to commercially viable technologies.

4. The concept of biorefinery when validated and improved at pilot scale, will lead to self-

reliance of the country in the fuels and chemicals space while also leading to carbon footprint reduction.

5. Substantial IP will be generated and possibly sold resulting in revenues to the research

community and institutes, while also making indigenous technology available to Indian industry.

Preliminary Work Done

DBT-ICT Centre’s Lignocellulosic Sugars Platform Technology The DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences, established by Department of Biotechnology in 2009, has developed a platform technology for cost competitive conversion of lignocellulosic biomass (LBM) to its mono-sugar components and lignin. The DBT-ICT lignocellulosic sugars technology is quite different from any used or reported in the world and achieves a sugar production that would at commercial scale cost less than Rs 15/kg, a good Rs.10 cheaper than sugar from any other source. The salient features of this platform technology are:

- Simple scalable continuous technology for LBM fractionation - Separate nearly ‘homogeneous’ streams of glucose, pentose and lignin - All sugar yields >90% - Two-step ‘rapid’ continuous enzymatic saccharification - Reusable enzyme system: Cost reduction >5 fold - Biomass to sugars within 24h - Recovery of saleable lignin - Entire plant designed as continuous flow system

- All rapid processes: Low foot-print; low CAPEX - Cost effective separation of sugars if required in high purity for further specific transformations

Besides, the plant design includes novel solid handling equipment especially suited for handling biomass intermediates at all stages of processing. The technology developed in all its components has been implemented at a 10 ton/day pilot plant set up by India Glycols Limited at their Kashipur (Uttrakhand) site under limited ‘pilot’ license. The pilot plant has been functional since January 2012. The important performance indicators, in addition to the above list, and as projected to a commercial scale are as follows: Plant & Machinery USD 0.6/kg annual sugar production capacity

(US DOE acceptable figure for nth scale commercial plant is USD 1.5 /kg)

Cost of manufacturing USD 0.3/kg sugar (US DOE acceptable cost is USD 0.40/kg sugar DBT-ICT Centre’s Biobutanol Technology The Centre has been actively working on the biorefinery concept for more than 2 years. A number of biorefinery concepts have been developed. The work has involved development of scalable technologies that will be able to utilize cheap biomass derived sugars and lignin. The biobutanol biorefinery has involved development of a host of technologies. In addition to

internal R&D, the Centre has been actively working with a number of industries in developing capacity to innovate and generate relevant technologies for ‘green’ bio-based chemicals. In this light, the partnership with Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. is important. Technologies developed in partnership with Privi Biotechnologies are also described below. Please see Annexure 2 for process block diagram. Bio-butanol and Acetone Butanol and acetone are co-produced in what is known as ABE fermentation using clostridia strains. A very large number of attempts all over the world to shut-off pathways to acetone and ethanol and increase yield of butanol beyond 0.23 on sugars have not been successful. Nevertheless, a combined yield of butanol and acetone in excess of 35% on sugars can be viable if the following criteria are met: (i) Sugars are cheap (< Rs. 15/kg), and (ii) the cost of production is low. While the DBT-ICT Centre’s platform cellulosic sugar technology offers cheap sugars, attempts were made at the Centre to increase the productivity of butanol + acetone fermentation. A two-step fermentation that separates acidogenic and solventogenic phases into individual high rate fermentations has been devised and gives an overall productivity in excess of 2 g/L/h compared to typical 0.5 g/L/h. This has resulted in overall butanol+acetone yield of 35% in good time without significant formation of ethanol. The concentration of butanol achieved is about 15g/L which is typical of butanol fermentations. A novel separation technology involving efficient extraction of butanol and acetone followed by their separation has also been developed at the Centre. The cost of production along with other products is given in Annexure 3. Other Technologies ‘Natural’ Xylitol Xylose emerges as a product of biomass fractionation and deconstruction. While glucose fraction is sent to butanol fermentation, xylose can be fermented to more valuable xylitol. Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. has developed a fermentative production technology for xylitol from xylose and provides a productivity of >2 g/L/h. Effective technology for the recovery of purified xylitol from fermentation broth has been developed at DBT-ICT Centre and used at Privi Biotechnologies at kilo scale. The overall bioconversion+recovery yield of xylitol on xylose attained is >70% which is globally competitive. Furfural Furfural derived from fractionated xylose provides better economy of production as the other two components of biomass namely cellulose and lignin can be value-added. Further, xylose

being a far more homogeneous product than biomass, the conversion efficiencies and reaction rates were expected to be high. A novel technology based on rapid catalytic dehydration of xylose to furfural has been developed at the DBT-ICT Centre. The conversion and yield are both in excess of 90% with reaction times less than 2 min in continuous flow mode leading to both low CAPEX and OPEX. Bio-vanillin A novel two stage fermentation process for bioconversion of lignin derived ferulic acid has been developed at Privi Biotechnologies. The process can employ both batch and continuous fermentation with cell-recycle giving high productivities at low cost. The first process converts ferulic acid to vanillic acid while the second process converts the acid to vanillin. With an overall yield of 70% on ferulic acid, the process holds great promise to compete with global players in the arena. Annexure 2 lists the amounts of the five products produced per 2000kg of biomass feed which the rated capacity of the proposed biobutanol biorefinery. Specific Innovations and Intellectual Property involved Innovations that are other than biomass fractionation and deconstruction and form part of the developed technologies are as follows:

1. Two stage butanol fermentation for higher productivities (DBT-ICT Innovation: To be patented shortly)

2. Rapid selective catalytic dehydration of xylose to furfural (DBT-ICT Innovation: To be patented shortly)

3. Novel fermentation route for xylose to xylitol (Privi Biotechnologies Innovation: Patent applied)

4. Novel isolation and purification technology for xylitol from fermentation broth (DBT-ICT Innovation: Patent applied)

5. Novel bioconversion route for manufacture of bio-vanillin (Privi Biotechnologies Innovation: Patent applied)

The following patents that have been filed form the basis of the technologies. Three of these are property of ICT and three are with Privi Biotechnologies. Two more patents are shortly to be filed by ICT for butanol fermentation and furfural production. DBT-ICT Intellectual Property

1) Method for production of fermentable sugars from biomass; WIPO publication No.: WO

2010/137039; Indian Application No.:1299/MUM/2009 2) Fractionation of Biomass; WIPO publication No.: WO/2011/154967; Indian Application

No.: 1762/MUM/2010 3) A process for recovery of xylitol with high yield and purity; Indian Application Number:

421/MUM/2012 Privi Biotechnologies Intellectual Property

4) Continuous biotransformation of substituted aromatic carboxylic acids to their selective aldehydes and/or alcohols; Indian Application No: 2497/MUM2012

5) A selective microbial production of xylitol from biomass based sugar stream with enriched pentose component; Indian Application No.: 2495/MUM/2012

6) Microbial biotransformation of aromatic acids to their reduced carbon aromatic acids; Indian Application No: 2496/MUM/2012

Copies of the abstracts of the six filed patents are attached in Annexure 4.

Scope of the Proposed Project The scope of the proposed projects is as given below:

A. Designing and erecting a pilot scale modular technology translation facility for validating biorefinery concepts based on processing 2 ton biomass per day. Biomass feedstock used will be selected from a wide variety available easily across India.

B. Operating the translational biorefinery plant jointly with an Industry that has proven experience of running and managing complex chemical plants.

C. Validating in Phase 1 at the facility the Biobutanol Biorefinery concept developed jointly

at the DBT-ICT Centre and Privi Biotechnologies, Mumbai, for co-production of butanol, acetone, xylitol, furfural and bio-vanillin, and establishing the techno-commercial feasibility of the same for scale up to commercial plant/s.

D. Using the facility for validating other emerging biorefinery concepts and schemes

developed at the DBT-ICT Centre or elsewhere.

E. Licensing the proven and validated biorefinery concepts to interested industry in India and elsewhere.

Relevant MoU has been made between DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences and Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. The MoU is attached as Annexure 5. Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. has agreed to provide the required land and building in Mumbai, and also operate the plant on a regular basis and bear all associated costs. The contributions and responsibilities of the same is attached as Annexure 6. The DSIR recognition letter for Biotechnology R & D of Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. and the DBT sanctioned letter for SIBRI project successfully completed are attached as Annexure 7 and Annexure 8, respectively.

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2. Rouhi A.M. and Washington, E.N. (2003). Fine Chemicals firms enable flavor and

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3. Stanely M. (2012) Chemicals: ‘Green is Good’ Blue paper.

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T., Bennett G. N., and Lee S.Y. (2012) Metabolic Engineering of Clostridium

acetobutylicum ATCC 824 for Isopropanol-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation. Appl.

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M. (2012) Shotgun proteomic monitoring of Clostridium acetobutylicum during

stationary phase of butanol fermentation using xylose and comparison with the

exponential phase. J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 39 (6): 949-955.

6. Lin X., Wu. J., Jin X., Fan, J., Li R., Wen Q., Qian, W., Liu D., Chen X., Chen Y.,

Xie J., Bai J., Ying H., (2012) Selective separation of biobutanol from acetone–

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a novel macroporous resin. Biotechnol. Progress 28 (4): 962-972.

7. Tanaka S., Tashiro Y., Kobayashi G., Ikegami T., Negishi H., Sakaki K. (2012)

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saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4 with 1-dodecanol as the extractant. Bioresour.

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ethanol (ABE) recovery by pervaporation using silicalite–silicone composite

membrane from fed-batch reactor of Clostridium acetobutylicum Journal of

Membrane Science, 187 (1-2):93-102.

Annexure 1

PRODUCT MARKET SCENARIO DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences

ICT, Mumbai

The proposed Pilot plant apart from demonstrating the technology of Biorefinery from various biomasses; is also designed to provide a commercially viable business proposition, which will be financially attractive when scaled up. The selection of products which will be produced in the Pilot plant is motivated by commercial viability of the chosen products as a basket. Five products which have been identified for demonstration – Butanol, Acetone, Furfural, Xylitol and Vanillin – are currently being produced synthetically and have significant market size. While Vanillin is also produced from natural resources, it is too expensive from the natural route. Proposed Biorefinery will not only provide an eco-friendly route based on renewable raw material source, but will also simplify manufacturing process making these products more economical as well. This will result into significant increase in consumption of all the products considered, as newer applications will be economically and environmentally sustainable. Butanol has the potential of becoming an important auto fuel. Furfural, which is presently used in fewer applications, can become an important building block for the chemical industry of the future. Xylitol has the potential of resolving the problems of obesity and diabetics which have worrying human beings for a long time. Vanillin made from the Biorefinery will be just like the natural vanillin at significantly lower cost, so that many more people can enjoy its true flavor. Thus, while the current markets are sizeable for these products, when made from the natural, renewable resources, demand for these products can increase manifolds benefitting not only the manufacturers who will use the proposed technology, but also the consumers and the farmers who will get a new secondary source of income. This secondary source of incomes has the potential of changing the overall agricultural economy of our country. Butanol Uses: Biobutanol is a direct 'Drop-In' replacement for gasoline and has significant potential as an alternative fuel blend with ethanol (in E-85 as a replacement for gasoline). Bio-butanol has the potential to substitute for both ethanol and bio-diesel in the biofuel market estimated to be worth $247 billion by 2020. It has many advantages both as a direct biofuel and as a biofuel blend to existing fuels (both gasoline and diesel), it can be blended up to 40% with diesel fuel and has lower emissions (reduces hydrocarbon emissions by 95%; carbon monoxide to .01%; and oxides of nitrogen by 37%).

Statistics: Bio-based butanol offers a renewable alternative to petro-based chemical-grade butanol - a $10 billion global market. Butanol is a key building block chemical in the $85 billion coatings, adhesives and inks market and an intermediate in the $700 billion global polymers market. Butyl acrylates are widely used as critical polymers in the production of latex paints, lacquers, enamels, automotive coatings and industrial coatings. Butyl acetates and ethers are used as solvents in vinyl, cellulosic, acrylics, urethanes and epoxy coatings. The production capacity of world n-butyl alcohol is 3,568,000 tons/year, the output is 2,944,000 tons/year, the operating rate is 82.5% and the apparent consumption was 2,944,000 tons/year in 2010. The top 3 regions with large production capacity are Asia, North America and Western Europe, which respectively take up 38%, 31% and 18% in world total production capacity. The most important consumer is Asia, whose consumption takes up about 53% of world total consumption. And then there are North America and Western Europe, whose consumption respectively takes up 22% and 19%. Both production and consumption gradually focus on Asia. The global top 10 manufactures of Butanol are tabulated below.

Table 1: Global top 10 manufacturers of n-Butyl Alcohol

Companies Capacity

Kmt/year

BASF 649

Dow Chemical Company 526

Oxea Group 280

Formosa Plastics Group 250

Eastman Chemical Company 247

CNPC 195

Petronas 190

Sasol Limited 188

Sasol Limited 130

SINOPEC 120

All Others 793

TOTAL 3568

Acetone Uses: Acetone is a clear, colorless, volatile liquid with a sweet odor. It is both the simplest aliphatic ketone and the most commercially important. Nearly all world production of acetone is via cumene peroxidation, as a coproduct with phenol. Its main use is as a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of acetone cyanohydrin for methyl methacrylate, bisphenol A and aldol chemicals. Direct solvent applications account for a large portion of world demand.

Direct solvent applications and acetone cyanohydrin/methyl methacrylate accounted for 29% and 24%, respectively, of global acetone consumption in 2010, followed by bisphenol A at 22%. The other large market for acetone is aldol chemicals (including methyl isobutyl ketone [MIBK], methyl isobutyl carbinol [MIBC] and isophorone). It is also used in small volume to make functional compounds such as antioxidants, herbicides, higher ketones, condensates with formaldehydeor diphenylamine, and vitamin intermediates

Demand for methyl methacrylate, bisphenol A and acetone in direct solvent applications is greatly influenced by general economic conditions. As a result, demand for acetone largely follows the ups and downs of the world's leading economies.

Statistics: Asia will continue to play a large role in the global acetone market. The most recent scenario was the significant increase in demand and lack of sufficient domestic acetone supply in the region, helping boost phenol/acetone production in the developed regions for exports to Asia. However, with the additional capacity that is slated to come onstream by 2015, particularly driven by phenol demand for bisphenol A (for polycarbonate and epoxy resins) and phenolic resins, there will likely be a significant amount of surplus acetone on the market.

Growth rates for end-use markets vary by region. Consumption of acetone for bisphenol A will be driven by growth in Asia and the Middle East. Increased demand and capacity for bisphenol A will result in strong demand for acetone in these regions. Overall, world consumption of acetone for bisphenol A is expected to grow at an average annual rate of around 3.5% during 2010–2015.

Consumption of acetone for methyl methacrylate shows more regional variation than bisphenol A. In the United States, a pickup in demand for methyl methacrylate and the restarting of Lucite's methyl methacrylate plant will result in an average annual consumption growth rate of approximately 3% for acetone for the production of acetone cyanohydrin/methyl methacrylate. In Western Europe, acetone consumption for methyl methacrylate is forecast to remain relatively flat during 2010–2015, in contrast to Asia (including Japan), where consumption is expected to grow at approximately 2% per year. Global methyl methacrylate consumption is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of approximately 4% during 2010–2015.

In 2010, the worldwide production capacity for acetone was estimated at 6.7 million Tons per year. With 1.56 million Tons per year, the United States had the highest production capacity, followed by Taiwan and mainland China.

INEOS Phenol is the largest global acetone producer, owning 17% of the world's capacity, with two plants in Europe and one in the United States. It also owns the world's largest production site (420,000 Tons/annum) in Beveren (Belgium) Mitsui Chemicals (7-8%) has plants in Japan and Singapore while Sunoco operates two plants in the United States. Shell operates one plant in the United States and one in Europe; its European plant produces acetone from isopropyl alcohol. There are two listed manufacturers of acetone in India - Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd and Schenectady International Group - India Ltd

Spot price of acetone in 2011 was 1100-1250 USD/Tons in the United States.

Furfural Uses: Presently major application of furfural is in making furfural alcohol which is used in foundry industry. Furfural also has applications in flavors and fragrances industry. Privi has been working on a product with furfural as the starting raw material. Apart from its use as alcohol or for flavor industry, furfural is emerging as a C5 based building block of the future, from the current C2 (ethylene) or C3 (propylene) based products. As furfural gets manufactured from renewable resources, role and applications of furfural as a building block are expected to increase significantly. Statistics: The current global demand for furfural is about 38 Mio MT per annum. Global requirement for furfural in flavor industry is estimated to be 10,000 MT per annum. Current world production stands at approximately 300,000 TPA. Furfuryl alcohol prices have a fairly broad fluctuation bandwith, mainly because about 40% of the buyers are small domestically operating companies that buy the material on the spot market. The price ranges between $1000-1200 per Ton. China plays a dominant role in production as well of use of furfural. With 80% of global capacity and 72% of world consumption, China will continue to drive the overall market. Price movements around the globe are largely dictated by Chinese producers and mainly influenced by the Chinese domestic supply/demand situation.

India’s import and export has been increasing dramatically over the years (Table 2)

Table 2: India Export Import data of Furfural

(T) 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Import 12.16 183.36 429.11

Export 0 0.05 196.03

Xylitol Uses: Xylitol is used based on its three critical properties: a) Sweetening properties – it is as sweet as ordinary sugar – in confectioneries and particularly

in chewing gums. b) Odontological properties – these properties are anticariogenicity, meaning it does not cause

formation of cavities in our tooth and also helps in tooth re-hardening and re-mineralization. c) Pharmaceutical properties – metabolism of Xylitol is independent of insulin. As a result it is

being used in treatment of hyperglycemia in diabetic patients. It is also used as an excipient (filler) in syrups of various tonics and vitamin formulations.

Statistics: Current demand for Xylitol is estimated to be about 200,000 MT per annum valued at over $ 500 Mio per annum. Presently Xylitol is manufactured by hydrogenation of D-Xylose, which is obtained from plant sugar. This process is based on Nickel catalyst and requires high pressure and temperature. This chemical (synthetic) process is laborious, cost and energy intensive. Danisco, a Danish company is the world leader in production of Xylitol and commands about half of the global market of Xylitol. Danisco is technology driven company with strong foundations in fermentations and enzymes. The company was recently bought over by Du Pont for over USD 11 billion. Danisco as well as other manufacturers deploy synthetic route for manufacturing Xylitol. There have a number of manufacturing units, all based on the synthetic route, which has come about in China. The global production of sugar (sucrose sugar) is estimated to be about 172 Mio ton, against the Xylitol production of a mere 200,000 MT – less than 0.15%. Xylitol, while being a sweetener, also has many advantages over ordinary sugar. Thus if eco-friendly and economical route of Xylitol is established there is a huge scope for natural Xylitol.

Vanillin Uses: Vanillin is a naturally occurring phenolic aldehyde and has been one of the most popular flavors used by mankind, ever since the Europeans first discovered it in the Southern America in the sixteenth century. 81% of the vanillin produced is used by the falvour industry followed by 14% in the Pharma industry and 4% in the Fragrance industry. The demand for Vanillin has always exceeded the supply from the natural vanilla beans. In the late nineteenth century Vanillin was produced semi-synthetically starting from coniferin obtained from Pine bark. Later vanillin has also been produced from eugenol found in clove oil. Vanillin is also made from curcumin found in turmeric extract. Curcumin is a dimer of two vanillin molecules. Vanillin is also made synthetically from guaiacol which can be obtained from catechol, which in turn can be produced from hydroxylation of phenol using hydrogen peroxide or also from 2chlorophenol. Statistics: The global demand for Vanillin, preferably natural or closed to natural vanillin is about 12,000 MT per annum. Less than 1% of the worldwide production of vanillin comes from natural vanilla, because its cost is very high. The balance demand is currently met from synthetic and semi-synthetic route. The high and variable cost of natural vanillin is due to various reasons, including limited availability of vanilla pods, fluctuations in crop yields associated with the climate, political and economic decisions, intensive cultivation, pollination, harvesting and ripening of pods. Price of Vanillin is significantly affected by its route of manufacturing and its source. While purely synthetic Vanillin is sold at $15 per Kg, purely natural Vanillin fetches a premium price of about $3000 per Kg. Semi-synthetic vanillin commands prices between $ 30 per Kg to $ 75 per Kg depending on the flavor quality. Thus the overall market is valued annually at about $600 Million. The market has significant potential to increase, as the standard of living of the developing world improves and eating habits develop for more refined tastes.

Table 2: India Export Import data of Vanillin

(T) 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 (6M)

Import 438.98 526.8 801.92 323.77

Export 22.57 10.02 3.39 2.1

The major manufacturers if Vanillin are Rhodia, Orkla, Borregaard, Eurovanillin and Chinese manufacturers- Harbin, Tianjin, Shanghai Xinhua, Shanghai Nature

The proposed Biorefinery will produce Vanillin entirely from natural resources and from ferulic acid which is made from biomass/biowaste. The Biorefinery can revolutionize the Vanillin market by offering natural Vanillin at significantly lower prices than the hugely expensive natural vanillin.

Annexure 2

The Bio-butanol Biorefinery Concept Process and Technologies

DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences

ICT, Mumbai

The Bio-butanol biorefinery is aimed at producing four other products alongside butanol to make butanol production a profitable venture. The processes that will be deployed in the plant are as given in the process block diagram given below.

Figure 1 in Annexure 1 : Process Block Diagram for the proposed Bio-butanol Biorefinery

The five large rectangles indicate the five distinct technologies developed and combined into the single concept of biorefinery. Major technology components that will be deployed are: Biomass fractionation and hydrolysis to sugars; fermentation to butanol and acetone; catalytic

conversion of xylose to furfural; fermentation of xylose to xylitol; chromatographic purification of ferulic acid from biomass derived phenolics; and bioconversion of ferulic acid to bio-vanillin. The process equipment to be used will be generically designed and laid out in a modular manner so that these can be used for manufacturing products other than those initially chosen using process sequences and schemes different form the one shown above. Major equipments will be fermenters (100L to 5KL); membrane systems for sugar concentration and water recycle; distillation assemblies; L-L Extraction systems; chromatography skids; and crystallizers and dryers. With the five products chosen, and the biorefinery designed for a capacity to process 2 ton biomass/day, the amount of the five products that can be produced per day is as given in Table 1 below.

Table 1 in Annexure 1: Daily production capacity at the proposed Biorefinery pilot plant

Product Input, kg Output, kg

Biomass 2000 (10% moisture)

Energy from Lignin

Catalysts (small)

Solvents (>99% recycled)

Water (>95% recycled)

Butanol 165

Acetone 80

Furfural 120

Xylitol 150

Vanillin 20

RM + utility cost for the entire production have been estimated in detail. The estimate of the CAPEX required in terms of land and building required, and process + utility equipment required has been also made. Based on experience and fairly accurate rules of scale up, biorefinery economics of a 100 times larger commercial plant is given in Annexure 3.

Annexure 3

The Bio-butanol Biorefinery Concept

Biorefinery Economics of A Projected Commercial Plant

Processing 200 Ton/day of Biomass

The proposed Bio-butanol biorefinery is designed as capable of producing a variety of products. The economical viability of the refinery should be assessed based on the profitability of analysis of product groups. The possible combinations of products from biomass can be as follows: Combination 1: Butanol and Acetone (BA) Combination 2: Butanol, Acetone, Xylitol and Furfural (BAXF) Combination 3: Butanol, Acetone, Xylitol and Vanillin (BAXV) In Combination 1, all of the glucose and xylitol produced by biomass fractionation and hydrolysis is converted to Butanol and Acetone. Table 1 is an analysis of processing 200 Ton of Biomass/day to produce only BA. For Combination 2, 50% of the xylitol produced is used to make high value furfural. An analysis of production of Butanol, Acetone, Xylitol and Furfural (BAXF) is given in Table 2 below. Processing of biomass can result in a more economically sound process because of higher value products that can be made. The economics of production of Butanol, Acetone, Xylitol and Vanillin (BAXV) from biomass is given as Combination 3 in Table 3.

Table 1 in Annexure 3: Economics of Production of butanol+acetone (BA) at the Projected 200 Ton biomass/day Biorefinery Plant

INR (Lakh)

Butanol capacity per year (Ton) 8,100

Sale Price of Bu/Kg (INR) 40

Total Sales per year Bu (A) (INR) 3,240

Acetone capacity per year (Ton) 3,900

Sale Price of A/Kg (INR) 60

Total Sales per year Acetone (B) (INR) 2,340

Net Sales per year (INR) (A+B) 5,580

Total Cost of Manufacturing Per Year* (INR) 11,144

Gross Profit (INR) -5,564

Table 2 in Annexure 3: Economics of Production of butanol+acetone+xylitol+furfural (BAXF) at the

Projected 200 Ton/day Biorefinery Plant

Table 3 in Annexure 2: Economics of Production of

Butanol+Acetone+Xylitol+Vanillin (BAXV) at the

Projected 200 Ton biomass/day Biorefinery Plant

INR (Lakh)

Butanol capacity per year (Ton) 4,950

Sale Price of Butanol/Kg (INR) 40

Total Sales per year Butanol (A) (INR) 1,980

Acetone capacity per year (Ton) 2,400

Sale Price of Acetone /Kg (INR) 60

Total Sales per year Acetone (B) (INR) 1,440

Xylitol capacity per year (Ton) 9,000

Sale Price of Xylitol /Kg (INR) 150

Total Sales per year Xylitol (C) (INR) 13,500

Vanillin capacity per year (Ton) 300

Sale Price of Vanllin/Kg (INR) 10,000

Total Sales per year Vanallin (D) (INR) 30,000

Net Sales per year (INR) (A+B+C+D) 46,920

Total Cost of Manufacturing Per Year (INR)** 36,336

Gross Profit (INR) 19,167

INR (Lakh)

Butanol capacity per year (Ton) 4,950

Sale Price of Butanol/Kg (INR) 40

Total Sales per year Butanol (A) (INR) 1,980

Acetone capacity per year(Ton) 2,400

Sale Price of Acetone /Kg (INR) 60

Total Sales per year Acetone (B) (INR) 1,440

Xylitol capacity per year (Ton) 4,500

Sale Price of Xylitol /Kg (INR) 150

Total Sales per year Xylitol (C) (INR) 6,750

Furfural capacity per year (Ton) 3,600

Sale Price of Furfural/Kg (INR) 100

Total Sales per year Furfural (D) (INR) 3,600

Net Sales per year (INR) (A+B+C+D) 13,770

Total Cost of Manufacturing Per Year (INR)* 13,286

Gross Profit (INR) 484

It can be seen that while production of butanol and acetone alone makes a loss making combination, the other two combinations offer better economics of production. The Bio-butanol biorefinery is a generic modular design that can be used for manufacturing any combination of products. Based on experience and fairly accurate rules of scale up the equipment and Machinery cost is estimated at 28,000 Lakhs.

Annexure 4

The Bio-butanol Biorefinery Concept

Abstracts of filed patents DBT-ICT-Centre for Energy Biosciences

ICT, Mumbai 1. METHOD FOR PRODUCTION OF FERMENTABLE SUGARS FROM BIOMASS WIPO publication No.: WO 2010/137039; Indian Application No.:1299/MUM/2009 A process for production of fermentable sugars from biomass using multi-enzyme multi-step system is provided herein. The process disclosed in the present invention provides high yielded sugars in less time period. The multi-enzyme system disclosed in the present invention converts celluloses, hemicelluloses and/or mixture thereof to fermentable sugar with higher efficiency and better economics than the process known in the prior art. Cellulose and hemicelluloses fractions derived from natural sources such as any lignocellulosic biomass are saccharified in a shortened time with higher conversion rates of intermediates with modified enzymatic compositions/groups of the Multi-enzyme system to enhance the rate thus providing an economical cellulose and hemicellulose saccharification process. 2. FRACTIONATION OF BIOMASS WIPO publication No.: WO/2011/154967; Indian Application No.: 1762/MUM/2010 A process of fractionation of biomass using aqueous ammonia for fractionation of biomass into lignin, cellulose and/or hemicellulose is provided herein. The process disclosed in the present invention is recovers lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose in more than 90% purity. The present invention also provides process of saccharification and fermentation of biomass using aqueous ammonia for production of soluble sugars, alcohols, acids, phenols and other desired products, or derivatives thereof. The process disclosed in the present invention is robust, cost effective and scalable.

3. A PROCESS FOR RECOVERY OF XYLITOL WITH HIGH YIELD AND PURITY Indian Application No.: 421/MUM/2012 The present invention relates to a process for recovery of xylitol with high yield and purity from crude feedstock. The process involves removal of proteins, coloring matter and other polymeric impurities from crude feedstock by integrating membrane separation and chromatography followed by a single step crystallization of xylitol from organic or aqueous-organic solvent system. The invented process leads to the production of xylitol crystals having more than 98% purity at more than 95% yield.

4. CONTINUOUS BIOTRANSFORMATION OF SUBSTITUTED CARBOXYLIC ACIDS TO THEIR

SELECTIVE ALDEHYDES AND/OR ALOCHOLS Indian Application No: 2497/MUM/2012 The present invention discloses a novel method for biological reduction of the carboxylic acids to their corresponding aldehydes and/or alcohols with high productivity and high yield by using fungus in the category of basidiomycetes. This reduction is specific and selective for its functional group (-COOH), without affecting other functional group such as–R groups (-OH, -NH2, -alkyl, -alkyoxy) and their position, number on aromatic ring. The method of the invention relates to reduction of aryl acids to aldehyde and/or alcohols by employing a white rot fungus- Pycnoporus cinnabarinus a organism of basidiomycete species, grown in vessel/ column. The biotransformation was performed in vessel/column/fermentor with pH control, dissolved oxygen, membrane system, product extractor is attached. 5. A SELECTIVE MICROBIAL PRODUCTION OF XYLITOL FROM BIOMASS BASED SUGAR STREAM WITH ENRICHED PENTOSE COMPONENT Indian Application No: 2495/MUM/2012 Xylitol, a five carbon sugar alcohol is widely produced by chemical hydrogenation of five carbon sugar xylose. The process of chemical hydrogenation is too expensive in terms of its separation and purification. Xylitol can also be produced by xylose fermenting microorganisms; popular among them are the species of yeast. The present invention utilizes yeast Candida tropicalis (NRRL 12968) for xylitol production, as an alternative and unexplored strain with high bioconversion rate and stability at higher initial xylose concentration. Different parameters are optimized for batch fermentation of xylose to xylitol such as initial xylose concentration, aeration (vvm), agitation (rpm), percent inoculum addition, and oxygen transfer rate. Maximum xylitol yield of 0.7-0.8g/g of xylose is obtained with 2.5-3.5% inoculum, 200-250g/l of initial xylose concentration, 0.1-0.2vvm of aeration rate, and two stage agitation strategy comprising of 450-550rpm for initial 18-24hrs followed by 300-400rpm for next 42-48 hrs.

6. MICROBIAL BIOTRANSFORMATION OF AROMATIC ACIDS TO THEIR REDUCED CARBON

AROMATIC ACIDS Indian Application No: 2496/MUM/2012 The present invention relates to a method for microbial fermentation and biotransformation of aromatic acids to aromatic acids with reduced carbon atoms of wide commercial importance using a culture of actinomycete species. Amycolatopsis sp or the mutant thereof is employed in the present invention to convert natural as well as synthetic aromatic acids to reduced carbon aromatic acids with wide applications. The said culture in the disclosed invention is adapted to grow at 37-46 °C to achieve the biotransformation of aromatic acid to reduced carbon aromatic acid is accomplished at 37-46 °C to obtain a higher yield of the product.

Annexure 5

The Bio-butanol Biorefinery Concept Memorandum of Understanding between ICT and Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd

Annexure 6

The Bio-butanol Biorefinery Concept Budget Details (Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd)

Budget (In Rupees) A. Non-Recurring (e.g. equipments, accessories, etc.): NIL

B. Recurring B.1 Manpower (See guidelines at Annexure-III)

Sr. No. Position No.

Consolidated Emolument

Year 1 Year 2 Total

1 Process Engineering Manager (1)

125000

1500000 1500000 3000000

2 Process Engineers (4)

58333 2800000 2800000 5600000

3 Draftsman (1) 22917 275000 275000 550000

4 Project manager (1)

75000 900000 900000 1800000

5 Project Engineers (4)

37500 1800000 1800000 3600000

6 Helpers (2) 6500 156000 156000 312000

7 Operational head (1)

125000 NIL 1500000 1500000

8 Pilot plant incharge (1)

58333 NIL 700000 700000

9 Shift Incharge (4)

33333 NIL 1600000 1600000

10 Production officer (16)

29167 NIL 5600000 5600000

11 Helper (16) 6500 NIL 1248000 1248000

12 Maintainance (4)

15000 NIL 720000 720000

13 Lab Manager (1) 50000 NIL 600000 600000

14 Lab Scientist (4) 29167 NIL 1400000 1400000

15 Lab Chemist (4) 20833 NIL 1000000 1000000

16 Store Incharge (1)

25000 NIL 300000 300000

17 Store operator/worke

13000 NIL 468000 468000

r (3)

18 Admin office (1) 25000 NIL 300000 300000

19 HR office (1) 33333 NIL 400000 400000

20 Office boy (1) 6500 NIL 78000 78000

21 Security (6) 10000 NIL 720000 720000

Sub-Total (B.1) = 31496000

B.2 Consumables

Sr. No.

Item

Quantity Year 1 Year 2 Total

1 Electricity for (domestic, AHU, fabrication, plant

operation)

93680 KW 1113450 5538390 6651840

2 Water for (equipment trials, boiler, chilling plant)

420 KL 32760 71190 103950

3 CNG Gas 25500 m3 NIL 10098000 10098000

4 Raw materials 1 year NIL 61324200 61324200

5 Diesel 500 (litre) NIL 270000 270000

6 Civil consultancy charges

1Number 2300000 NIL 2300000

7 CGMP/FDA consultancy

charges

1Number 250000 250000 500000

Sub-Total (B.2) =81247990

Other items Year 1 Year 2 Total

B.3 Travel NIL NIL NIL

B.4 Contingency NIL NIL NIL

B.5 Overhead (If applicable)

NIL NIL NIL

Sub-total of B (B.1+B.2+B.3+B.4+B.5)

11127210 101616780 112743990

Grand Total (A + B) 11127210 101616780 112743990

Note: Please give justification for each head and sub-head separately mentioned in the above

table. 1. Manpower containing technical and non-technical staff required to run the pilot plant.

Technical staff comprises process engineers, project engineers, operational head, pilot

plant incharge, operators, helpers, lab scientists, and chemists. Non-technical staff

comprises administration, human resources, security, etc. Required to run the overall

pilot plant activities.

2. Electricity cost comprises overall electricity required for plant fabrication, erection, pilot

plant operation, and domestic consumption including lights, fans, AHUs, and air

conditioners.

3. Water cost comprises overall water required for equipment water trials, process

requirement, utilities (boiler, chiller, brine plant), and for domestic application.

4. Raw materials comprise the cost required for raw purchase of all process (butanol,

xylitol, vanillin, and furfural) for one year.

Annexure 7

The Bio-butanol Biorefinery Concept DSIR Recognition Letter (Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd)

Annexure 8

The Bio-butanol Biorefinery Concept DBT Sanction Letter of SIBRI Project (Privi Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd)