Overview of chemical pretreatment of biomass for ethanol production -- constraints, challenges, current status, and future trends
Conference
·
OSTI ID:140222
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
Among the three categories of available pretreatment techniques (i.e., physical, chemical, and biological pretreatment) that prepare biomass for the subsequent bioconversion to ethanol, chemical pretreatment has received the most attention. In chemical pretreatment, the mode of action can be either to swell the biomass matrix or to remove hemicellulose or lignin. It is important to convert both cellulose and hemicellulose fractions into ethanol. With a typical biomass composition (46.2 wt % cellulose, 24.0 wt % xylan, and 24.0 wt % lignin), the maximum theoretical yield is calculated to be 0.13 gal (0.51 L) ethanol/kg dry biomass. For a plant producing 58.5 million gal/y (220 million L/y) ethanol with $42/ton ($46/tonne) dry biomass, assuming the maximum theoretical yield, the break-even ethanol production processing cost is approximately $110/dry ton ($130/dry tonne). Assuming no more than 30% of the processing cost should be allocated for pretreatment, the maximum pretreatment processing cost is in the neighborhood of $35/ton ($40/tonne) dry biomass. This constitutes an engineering constraint to the pretreatment process.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 140222
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP--200-5768-Vol.2; CONF-9308106--Vol.2; ON: DE94000435
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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