Scandinavian Hardwood Biorefinery Using “near-neutral” Hemicelluloses Pre-extraction- Energy Efficiency Measures

Abstract

While in a conventional mill, the hemicelluloses and lignin fraction of the wood isburned in the recovery boiler to produce steam, in a biorefinery it can be used toproduce added value products. In this paper, a comprehensive heat integration study foran average Scandinavian kraft model mill, as well as for a hemicelluloses extractionprocess with further utilization for ethanol production, is performed. The results showthat when the total integration of the hemicelluloses utilization process with the mill isconsidered, the integrated biorefinery could become self-sufficient in terms of steam