Economic Analysis of Cellulosic Ethanol Production from Sugarcane Bagasse Using a Sequential Deacetylation, Hot Water and Disk-Refining Pretreatment

Ming Hsun Cheng, Zhaoqin Wang, Bruce S. Dien, Patricia J.W. Slininger, Vijay Singh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A new process for conversion of sugarcane bagasse to ethanol was analyzed for production costs and energy consumption using experimental results. The process includes a sequential three-stage deacetylation, hot water, and disk-refining pretreatment and a commercial glucose-xylose fermenting S. cerevisiae strain. The simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SScF) step used was investigated at two solids loadings: 10% and 16% w/w. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted for the major operating parameters. The minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) varied between $4.91and $4.52/gal ethanol. The higher SScF solids loading (16%) reduced the total operating, utilities, and production costs by 9.5%, 15.6%, and 5.6%, respectively. Other important factors in determining selling price were costs for fermentation medium and enzymes (e.g., cellulases). Hence, these findings support operating at high solids and producing enzymes onsite as strategies to minimize MESP.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number642
JournalProcesses
Volume7
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 20 2019

Keywords

  • Minimum ethanol selling price
  • Production cost
  • Sequential three-stage pretreatment
  • Simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SScF)
  • sugarcane bagasse

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Bioengineering
  • Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous)
  • Process Chemistry and Technology

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