Process design and economics of a flexible ethanol-butanol plant annexed to a eucalyptus kraft pulp mill

Process design and economics of a flexible ethanol-butanol plant annexed to a eucalyptus kraft pulp mill

[Display omitted] •Flexibility brings economic advantages to ethanol- and butanol-dedicated plants.•Use of organosolv fractionation technology enhances flexibility.•Fermentation with in-situ product recovery (ISPR) did not bring economic value.•Competitiveness of ISPR is subject to high solids loadi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioresource technology Vol. 250; pp. 345 - 354
Main Authors: Pereira, Guilherme C.Q., Braz, Danilo S., Hamaguchi, Marcelo, Ezeji, Thaddeus C., Maciel Filho, Rubens, Mariano, Adriano P.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-02-2018
Subjects:
Eucalyptus ethanol
Process flexibility
Pulp mill
Techno-economics
Pulp mill
Techno-economics
Eucalyptus ethanol
Process flexibility
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Summary:[Display omitted] •Flexibility brings economic advantages to ethanol- and butanol-dedicated plants.•Use of organosolv fractionation technology enhances flexibility.•Fermentation with in-situ product recovery (ISPR) did not bring economic value.•Competitiveness of ISPR is subject to high solids loading in the hydrolysis reactor. This work proposes a strategy, from a process design standpoint, for pulp companies to enter the Brazilian ethanol market. The flexible plant converts eucalyptus-derived glucose to either ethanol or butanol (according to market conditions) and xylose only to butanol production. Depending on the biomass pretreatment technology, Monte Carlo simulations showed that the Net Present Value (NPV) of the flexible plant increases by 20–28% in relation to an ethanol-dedicated plant. Whereas the lower costs of the steam explosion technology turns the investment more attractive (NPV = 184 MMUSD; IRR = 29%), the organosolv technology provides better flexibility to the plant. This work also shows that excessive power consumption is a hurdle in the development of flash fermentation technology chosen for the flexible plant. These results indicate that conventional batch fermentation is preferable if the enzymatic hydrolysis step operates with solids loading up to 20 wt%.
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ISSN:0960-8524
1873-2976
DOI:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.11.022