Integrated fermentation and electrolysis process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017218404-A1
Application number	US-201715422424-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 1, 2017
Priority date	Feb 1, 2016
Publication date	Aug 3, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

The invention provides schemes for the integration of a fermentation process, with an electrolysis process, and a C1-generating industrial process. In particular, the invention provides process for utilizing electrolysis products, for example H 2 and/or O 2 , to improve the process efficiency of at least one of the fermentation process or the C1-generating industrial process. More particularly, the invention provides a process whereby, H 2 generated by electrolysis is used to improve the substrate efficiency for a fermentation process, and the O 2 generated by the electrolysis process is used to improve the composition of the C1-containing tail gas generated by the C1-generating industrial process.

First claim

1 . A process for improving carbon capture efficiency in an integrated fermentation and industrial process, wherein the process comprises:
i. passing one or more feedstocks to an electrolysis process to produce an electrolysis derived substrate; ii. blending at least a portion of the electrolysis derived substrate with a C1-containing tail gas from an industrial process to provide a blended C1-containing substrate; iii. passing the blended C1-containing substrate to a bioreactor containing a culture of at least one C1-fixing bacterium; and iv. fermenting the culture to produce one or more fermentation products.

2 . The process of claim 1 , wherein
i. CO 2 is passed to an electrolysis process to produce an electrolysis derived substrate comprising CO and O 2 ; ii. the industrial process produces a C1-containing tail gas; and iii. at least a portion of the CO from (i) is blended with at least a portion of the C1-containing tail gas from (ii) to provide the blended C1-containing substrate.

3 . The process of claim 2 , wherein at least a portion of the O 2 from (i) is passed to the industrial process.

4 . The process of claim 2 , wherein an exit gas stream is produced by the fermentation, the exit gas comprises CO 2 , and at least a portion of the CO 2 is recycled to the electrolysis process.

5 . The process of claim 1 , wherein:
i. H 2 O is passed to an electrolysis process to produce an electrolysis derived substrate comprising H 2 and O 2 ; ii. the industrial process produces a C1-containing tail gas; and iii. at least a portion of the H 2 from (i) is blended with the C1 gaseous substrate from (ii) to provide the blended C1-containing substrate.

6 . The process of claim 5 , wherein the electrolysis process requires an energy input, and the energy input is derived from a renewable energy source.

7 . The process of claim 5 , wherein at least a portion of the O 2 from (i) is passed to the industrial process.

8 . The process of claim 2 or claim 5 wherein the industrial process is a partial oxidation process, wherein said partial oxidation process is selected from the group consisting of a Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) reaction; a COREX or FINEX steel making process, a Blast Furnace (BF) process, a ferroalloy process; a titanium dioxide production process and a gasification processes.

9 . The process of claim 2 or 5 , wherein the partial oxidation process is a gasification process, and wherein the gasification process is selected from the group consisting of a municipal solid waste gasification process, a biomass gasification process, a pet coke gasification process and a coal gasification process.

10 . The process of claim 5 wherein the industrial process comprises a complete oxidation process selected from the group consisting of cement production processes, natural gas power plants, and coal fired power plants.

11 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the C1-containing tail gas comprises CO, CO 2 and Hz.

12 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the blended C1-containing substrate comprises CO.

13 . The process of claim 12 , wherein the blended C1-containing substrate further comprises at least one component selected from the group consisting of CO 2 , H 2 , CH 4 .

14 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the C1 fixing bacteria are selected from the genus Clostridium.

15 . The process of claim 14 , wherein the at least one C1 fixing bacterium is selected from the group consisting of Clostridium autoethanogenum, Clostridium ljungdahlii , and Clostridium ragsdalei.

16 . The process of claim 3 or claim 7 , wherein a portion of the C1-containing tail gas is blended with a portion of the oxygen from the electrolysis unit to match the oxygen richness required for the feed to the industrial process.

17 . An integrated process for the production of at least one product from a gaseous substrate comprising renewable hydrogen, the process comprising:
i. receiving a first gaseous substrate comprising renewable hydrogen, and a second gaseous substrate comprising CO 2 ; ii. passing a first portion of hydrogen and a first portion of CO 2 to a reverse water gas shift reactor operated under conditions to produce an exit stream comprising CO; iii. blending a second portion of hydrogen, a second portion of CO 2 and the exit stream comprising CO to provide a C1-containing substrate; iv. passing the C1-containing substrate to a bioreactor containing a culture of one or more C1 fixing bacterium; and v. fermenting the C1-containing substrate to produce at least one fermentation product.

18 . The process of claim 17 , wherein the renewable hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, and, wherein the CO 2 is produced by a cement production process.

19 . The process of claim 18 , wherein O 2 is produced as a by-product of the electrolysis process.

20 . The process of claim 19 , wherein the O 2 by product is passed to the cement production process to meet the O 2 requirement of the cement production process.

21 . The process of any one of claims 1 to 21 , wherein the at least one fermentation product is selected from the group consisting of ethanol, acetate, butanol, butyrate, 2,3-butanediol, lactate, butene, butadiene, methyl ethyl ketone, ethylene, acetone, isopropanol, lipids, 3-hydroxypropionate, isoprene, fatty acids, 2-butanol, 1,2-propanediol, and 1-propanol.

22 . An integrated system comprising;
i. an electrolyser for producing an electrolysis derived substrate; ii. an industrial process zone, utilizing at least a portion of an electrolysis derived substrate of (i) and generating C1-containing tail gas; iii. a fermentation zone producing at least one fermentation product by anaerobic fermentation of at least a portion of the industrial waste gas of (ii) by a C1-fixing bacteria.

23 . The system of claim 22 , wherein the system further comprises a blending unit, for blending a portion of an electrolysis derived substrate from the electrolysis unit with at least a portion of the C1-containing tail gas to produce a blended C1-containing substrate, and a conduit for passing the blended C1-containing substrate from the blending unit, to the fermentation unit.

24 . The system of claim 22 , wherein the electrolysis unit is a water electrolysis unit for the production of hydrogen and oxygen using a renewable energy source.

25 . The system of claim 22 , wherein the electrolysis unit is a CO 2 electrolyser.

26 . The system of claim 22 wherein the energy source for the electrolysis unit is provided by a renewable energy production unit.

Assignees

• Lanzatech New Zealand Ltd

Inventors

• Simpson Sean Dennis
• Conrado Robert John
• Mihalcea Christophe Daniel

Classifications

• C12P7/065 Primary

  with microorganisms other than yeasts · CPC title

• C12M43/00

  Combinations of bioreactors or fermenters with other apparatus · CPC title

• C12M45/07

  by electrical or electromagnetic forces · CPC title

• C12P7/54

  Acetic acid (vinegar C12J) · CPC title

• C12P7/18

  polyhydric · CPC title