Technology delivers high-value chemicals from waste cellulose

Following six years of development, Victorian chemical manufacturer Circa Group Pty Ltd has created a technology called Furacell that recycles cellulose waste using a self-contained (closed-loop), energy-efficient process that produces a chemical called Levoglucosenone (LGN), as well as water and phosphate-bearing charcoal with commercial potential as a carbon dioxide sequestering soil conditioner.

“It’s all part of the global trend to move away from reliance on crude oil in the manufacture of plastics and chemicals and towards clean renewable resources,” says organic chemist Dr Warrick Raverty, Circa chief scientist. “LGN is a flexible ‘platform chemical’ with wide-ranging applications in multibillion-dollar markets, from pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals to food flavourings, fragrances and more.”

Currently onto its third scale-up plant, the group is also conducting trials with major companies in the flavour and fragrance sector, and in partnership talks with specialty chemical manufacturers in Europe regarding development of new and replacement feedstock products for the pharmaceutical, flavours and specialty materials markets.

“I know it sounds clichéd, but we always get great responses when we talk to people in the specialty chemicals market,” says CEO Tony Duncan, who established Circa, along with Raverty and forestry industry expert Greg Court. “But being a new company with a new product - albeit one with 30 years of academic research behind it - from a country a long way from major markets and not known for its expertise in this area, does make the task more challenging. Building supply credibility is key,” he explains.

Today, LGN needed for drug development and research is produced in small university-scale batches. The world’s largest producer can crank out only two kilograms of LGN per month, far less than what has been reported at Circa’s proof-of-concept facility located at the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing in Knoxfield.

Circa’s Furacell technology is claimed to be an easily scalable ‘catalytic thermochemical process’ with no harmful effluents. According to Duncan, it’s not economically or environmentally feasible to transport large quantities of cellulose waste to ‘megarefineries’. Computer modelling shows that once the market is established, it would be possible to build plants in regional locations which could process 5000-10,000 tonnes of waste cellulose.

“Our next step is to scale up the system to produce about 20 tonnes of LGN per year at a capital cost around $5 million,” says Duncan. To support the development process, Circa has input from experts in the UK, US, New Zealand and Argentina. The group is also collaborating on LGN product development with Britain’s Bristol and York Universities and the University of New England, at Armidale, NSW, Australia.

Raverty acknowledges that LGN will never replace crude oil in our lifetimes, but predicts it has a bright future as major companies across all chemical sectors move to greener and more sustainable supply chains. He points to increased environmental regulation such as the European Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), which is forcing companies to reduce or replace current processes that generate intractable wastes, such as heavy metals and chlorinated organics, with more environmentally benign products and processes.