Process-related hemicellulose potential in the EU

Hemicellulose present in residual hydrolysate can be identified in industrial processes such as pulp production or lignin extraction. It is predominantly combusted in black liquor or spent liquor for energy generation, although hemicellulose itself possesses relatively low energy content. Within the framework of the HemiCoat project (https://hemicoat.eu/), lignocellulosic residual hydrolysate streams are investigated with the aim of separating hemicellulose for bio-coating production. To date, no high-resolution mapping or estimation of the available hemicellulose potential within the EU exists.

Using desk research, processing sites in the EU-27 countries that generate residual hydrolysate have been identified and mapped. Corresponding information on primary input materials, input quantities, main production processes, as well as main products and their quantities, has been compiled. The applied process significantly influences the proportion of hemicellulose that is solubilized and transferred into the residual hydrolysate. Therefore, mass balances of input materials—such as straw, hardwood, softwood, or grass—and the resulting pulp and residual hydrolysate have been derived from various literature sources to calculate the solubilized hemicellulose accordingly. The initial hemicellulose content of the input material was multiplied by the process-specific share of soluble hemicellulose components, resulting in a process-specific hemicellulose potential at the level of individual production sites. In cases where a production site operates multiple production lines, each line was assessed separately. For the majority of production sites, only information on input materials and pulp output was available, necessitating the back-calculation of input material quantities based on pulp production.

This data publication comprises all collected information related to the afore mentioned categories. Each value is accompanied by additional metadata, including the unit, an indication of whether it was estimated by the authors, and the literature sources used for the calculations. If only a single value for pulp but different input material was found, the pulp value was split accordingly to available information (no information 50:50). The same was done with bleached and unbleached pulp produced in the same factory where only a single value of pulp quantity was found. All data sources are listed in “Literature.csv”

A detailed description of the developed method and data used is given in the projects report D1.2: Up-scaling of feedstock potential from industry to EU level: https://hemicoat.eu/news#downloads 

See the metadata and sources file for more information on the contents.

The HemiCoat Project is funded by the cornet program (BMWE, funding code 01IF00399C).