Conversion of Sugar Beet Waste to Commodity Chemicals

Micromidas has developed a process to convert a wide variety of lignocellulosic feedstocks such to aromatics such as p-xylene through a series of furanic intermediates. Sugar beet waste from Michigan sugar producers is potentially an excellent carbohydrate feedstock for the Micromidas process. The development of higher value applications for this waste stream would provide an enhanced revenue stream for the US sugar beet industry. Micromidas will evaluate sugar beet pulp as a feedstock for the Micromidas process. The dry pulp will be fed directly into the process and the yield based on carbohydrates will be determined. The resulting mixed pentose and hexose sugar stream will be converted to p- xylene and toluene through a series of catalytic transformations. The catalysts and the conversion process will be optimized for high yield of high value aromatics. Processes will be screened to convert sugar beet pulp to chloromethylfurfural (CMF), an intermediate in the conversion of carbohydrates to PX. The yield based from carbohydrates will be optimized. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The ability to produce p-xylene from non-food biomass with a cost competitive to that from petroleum sources has an immediate market. PX has commercial uses as a solvent but its predominant use is as a precursor to terephthalic acid used to make poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). A consortium of consumer businesses including Coke, Ford, Heinz, Nike and P & amp;G have expressed their desire to package their products in biobased PET.