Biomethanation potential of biological and other wastes

Anaerobic technology has been traditionally applied for the treatment of carbon rich wastewater and organic residues. Anaerobic processes can be fully integrated in the biobased economy concept for resource recovery. After a brief introduction about applications of anaerobic processes to industrial wastewater treatment, agriculture feedstock and organic fraction of municipal solid waste, the position of anaerobic processes in biorefinery concepts is presented. Integration of anaerobic digestion with these processes can help in the maximisation of the economic value of the biomass used, while reducing the waste streams produced and mitigating greenhouse gases emissions. Besides the integration of biogas in the existing full-scale bioethanol and biodiesel production processes, the potential applications of biogas in the second generation lignocellulosic, algae and syngas-based biorefinery platforms are discussed.(undefined

Evaluation of process configurations for second generation integrated with first generation bioethanol production from sugarcane

Since sugarcane bagasse and trash are used as fuels in conventional bioethanol production, the amount of surplus lignocellulosic material used as feedstock for bioethanol production depends on the energy consumption of the production processes. Residues from the second generation process (e.g., unreacted lignocellulosic material) may be used as fuels and increase the amount of surplus bagasse, along with improved technologies. Pentose fermentation to ethanol instead of biodigestion to produce biogas will lead to higher ethanol production, increasing energy consumption of the process and consequently, decreasing the amount of surplus lignocellulosic material available. In this study different configurations of the second generation ethanol production process (e.g. pretreatment with steam explosion coupled or not with delignification, pentose biodigestion or fermentation to ethanol, solids loading on hydrolysis), are evaluated in the integrated first and second generation ethanol production from sugarcane through simulation using Aspen Plus. The results show which process alternatives, potentially, may lead to higher ethanol production, pointing towards where research should be directed in order to provide important gains on ethanol production in the integrated process. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.109848

Utilization of pentoses from sugarcane biomass: Techno-economics of biogas vs. butanol production

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)This paper presents the techno-economics of greenfield projects of an integrated first and second-generation sugarcane biorefinery in which pentose sugars obtained from sugarcane biomass are used either for biogas (consumed internally in the power boiler) or n-butanol production via the ABE batch fermentation process. The complete sugarcane biorefinery was simulated using Aspen Plus (R). Although the pentoses stream available in the sugarcane biorefinery gives room for a relatively small biobutanol plant (7.1-12 thousand tonnes per year), the introduction of butanol and acetone to the product portfolio of the biorefinery increased and diversified its revenues. Whereas the IRR of the investment on a biorefinery with biogas production is 11.3%, IRR varied between 13.1% and 15.2% in the butanol production option, depending on technology (regular or engineered microorganism with improved butanol yield and pentoses conversion) and target market (chemicals or automotive fuels). Additional discussions include the effects of energy-efficient technologies for butanol processing on the profitability of the biorefinery. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.142390399Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [2007/00341-1, 08/57873-8

Production of bioethanol and other bio-based materials from sugarcane bagasse: Integration to conventional bioethanol production process

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Ethanol may be produced using sugarcane bagasse as raw material through the Organosolv process with dilute acid hydrolysis, thus increasing ethanol production with the same cultivated sugarcane area. In this work simulations of bioethanol production from sugarcane juice and bagasse are carried out using software UniSim Design. A typical large scale production plant is considered: 1000 m(3)/day of ethanol is produced using sugarcane juice as raw material. A three-step hydrolysis process (pre-hydrolysis of hemicellulose, Organosolv delignification and cellulose hydrolysis) of surplus sugarcane bagasse is considered. Pinch analysis is used to determine the minimum hot utility obtained with thermal integration of the plant, in order to find out the maximum availability of bagasse that can be used in the hydrolysis process, taking into consideration the use of 50% of generated sugarcane trash as fuel for electricity and steam production. Two different cases were analyzed for the product purification step: conventional and double-effect distillation systems. It was found that the double-effect distillation system allows 90% of generated bagasse to be used as raw material in the hydrolysis plant, which accounts for an increase of 26% in bioethanol production, considering exclusively the fermentation of hexoses obtained from the cellulosic fraction. (C) 2009 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.879A12061216Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FINEPFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP