Ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass

Conference · Sun Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:110095

Wyman, C E ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States). Alternative Fuels Division

When added directly to gasoline or used to produce ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) for gasoline blends, ethanol improves combustion and reduces tailpipe carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions that contribute to ozone formation and smog. ETBE also reduces fuel evaporation that contributes to smog formation. Enough ethanol could be derived from domestic sources of dedicated herbaceous and woody energy crops, collectible waste materials, and other sources of lignocellulosic biomass to potentially replace all gasoline used in the United States. Furthermore, because the lignin fraction can be burned to power the conversion process, few if any, fossil resources are needed to produce ethanol from biomass, and ethanol`s contribution to carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere is 10% or less than that of gasoline. Based on technoeconomic analyses and R and D results, efforts have been directed at enzyme-based processes because of the technology`s status and the opportunities to lower the cost to be competitive with gasoline. The cost of ethanol production has been reduced from about $3.60/gal in 1980 to less than $1.22/gal now. Research is being carried out to further improve biomass pretreatment, cellulose enzyme production, cellulose conversion, five-carbon sugar utilization, lignin use, and product recovery, with the goal of reducing the cost to $0.67/gal at the plant gate. Major breakthroughs have been achieved recently on technologies for pretreatment and xylose fermentation. Because ethanol production from biomass is now competitive for use in direct blends with gasoline (particularly for niche applications), bench scale integrated processes are being operated, and construction of a 1 ton/d PDU is being completed at NREL to allow industrial partners to obtain data that are vital to commercial applications. Partnerships have been formed with New Energy Company of Indiana, Amoco Corporation, and others to rapidly apply the technology.

• OSTI ID: 110095
• Report Number(s): CONF-950336--; ISBN 0-7918-1300-2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
BIOSYNTHESIS
CELLULOSE
CLIMATIC CHANGE
ECONOMICS
ETHANOL
ETHANOL PLANTS
ETHERS
FUEL ADDITIVES
LIGNIN
SACCHARIFICATION
SEPARATION PROCESSES
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
ZYMOMONAS MOBILIS