The agricultural and forestry sectors generate a great amount of lignocellulose biomass in the forms of agro-forestry residues and wet greenhouse wastes, which are currently disposed by landfills or used for low-value applications such as energy and composts. Funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada via the BioMass Canada Cluster in partnership with Western Maple Bio Resources Inc, we developed a novel zero-waste process for conversion of wet greenhouse wastes and agro-forestry residues into high-value bioproducts. The schematic diagram of the process is illustrated in the following Scheme. In this process, a hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process was employed to co-liquefy wet greenhouse wastes (no de-watering or drying is needed) and agro-forestry residues or other wastes into bio-oils, bio-char for bio-energy or soil conditioner, and water recycled for greenhouse. the HTL bio-oils are used as bio-polyols for the synthesis of bio-polyurethane (BPU) foams as hydroponic growing media for greenhouse soilless seeding or planting. In addition, lignocellulosic biomass (in particular, agricultural/forestry residues) are fractionated into lignin/hemi-cellulose and cellulose. The obtained lignin/hemicellulose and cellulose are used for the production of other high-value bioproducts such as bio-based formaldehyde-free wood adhesives (with superb bonding properties and water resistance) and super absorbent polymers (with water absorption capacity 60-300 times its own weight) as water retention materials.

Zero-waste process for conversion of wet greenhouse wastes and agro-forestry residues into high-value bioproducts

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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