Nitrogen recovery from low-value biogenic feedstocks via steam gasification to methylotrophic yeast biomass

Carbon and nitrogen are crucial elements for life and must be efficiently regenerated in a circular economy. Biomass streams at the end of their useful life, such as sewage sludge, are difficult to recycle even though they contain organic carbon and nitrogen components. Gasification is an emerging technology to utilize such challenging waste streams and produce syngas that can be further processed into, e.g., Fischer-Tropsch fuels, methane, or methanol. Here, the objective is to investigate if nitrogen can be recovered from product gas cleaning in a dual fluidized bed (DFB) after gasification of softwood pellets to form yeast biomass. Yeast biomass is a protein-rich product, which can be used for food and feed applications. An aqueous solution containing ammonium at a concentration of 66 mM was obtained and by adding other nutrients it enables the growth of the methylotrophic yeast Komagataella phaffii to form 6.2 g.L(−1) dry yeast biomass in 3 days. To further integrate the process, it is discussed how methanol can be obtained from syngas by chemical catalysis, which is used as a carbon source for the yeast culture. Furthermore, different gas compositions derived from the gasification of biogenic feedstocks including sewage sludge, bark, and chicken manure are evaluated for their ability to yield methanol and yeast biomass. The different feedstocks are compared based on their potential to yield methanol and ammonia, which are required for the generation of yeast biomass. It was found that the gasification of bark and chicken manure yields a balanced carbon and nitrogen source for the formation of yeast biomass. Overall, a novel integrated process concept based on renewable, biogenic feedstocks is proposed connecting gasification with methanol synthesis to enable the formation of protein-rich yeast biomass.