The First Biomass Refinery for the Production of Pulp, Lignins and C5 Sugars at Industrial Scale from Annual Plants and Hard Wood

The industrial process developed by CIMV is a world premiere for the manufacture of whitened paper pulp, sulphur free linear lignin and xylose syrup from annual fibre plants and hard wood. This new technology allows the separation without degradation of the three main components of the vegetable matter which are cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignins. It is a biomass refinery working on the model of an oil refinery. The organic acids, used for the biopolymers separation, are recycled by evaporation from the organic solution. The remaining syrup is treated with water to precipitate lignins which are separated from the remaining sugar solution. The lignins show a linear structure which allows a high reactivity in particular with a lot of monomers towards new polymers and new formaldehyde free adhesive formulations. The C5 sugar syrup can be used to produce additives for animal feeding, furfurol, furfurylic alcohol etc... The development at an industrial scale takes its course. The first CIMV factory has been designed to treat 150.000 tons of dry straw and will open in October / November 2009 in Vitry Le Francois in the north east of France.