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

Autor(es)

Pereira, Guilherme C. Q. ^[1] ; Braz, Danilo S. ^[1] ; Hamaguchi, Marcelo ^[2] ; Ezeji, Thaddeus C. ^[3] ; Maciel Filho, Rubens ^[1] ; Mariano, Adriano P. ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, UNICAMP, Sch Chem Engn, Lab Optimizat Design & Adv Control LOPCA, Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[2] Valmet, Araucaria, PR - Brazil

^[3] Ohio State Univ, Ohio Agr Res & Dev Ctr, Dept Anim Sci, Wooster, OH 44691 - USA

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Bioresource Technology; v. 250, p. 345-354, FEB 2018.
• Citações Web of Science: 7

Resumo

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%. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 15/50243-2 - Energy-efficient production of butanol (an advanced biofuel) from eucalyptus wood
• Beneficiário: Adriano Pinto Mariano
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular
• Processo FAPESP: 15/07097-5 - Desenvolvimento de um bioprocesso com alta eficiência energética para a produção flexível de butanol/etanol integrado a uma usina kraft de celulose
• Beneficiário: Adriano Pinto Mariano
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOEN - Regular