Review of bio-conversion pathways of lignocellulose-to-ethanol: Sustainability assessment based on land footprint projections

Hsien H. Khoo

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2015, vol. 46, issue C, 100-119

Abstract: A review of 55 pretreatment and bio-conversion methods for the production of lignocellulose–ethanol was carried out. Bio-conversion studies include enzymatic fermentation, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, process modelling, supply chain simulations, Life Cycle Assessment and other experimental studies. A new sustainability indicator labeled Land Footprint, from farm-to-fuel, was introduced. The Land Footprint (LF) results are projected for bio-ethanol derived from stover and switchgrass from U.S., sugarcane bagasse from Brazil and India, and rice husk and straw from China and India. In order to produce 1 million L bio-ethanol, bagasse and rice straw are observed to have the highest potential to be sustainable resources that demand the least amount of agricultural land. The Land Footprints for both countries are 85ha-yr for bagasse–ethanol and 80ha-yr for China rice straw–ethanol. The Land Footprints per 1 million bio-ethanol from switchgrass and stover in the U.S. are 140ha-yr and 366ha-yr, respectively. Utilizing stover as a feedstock, an estimated LF of 14.7 million ha-yr is required to satisfy up to 50% of U.S.’s year 2022 bio-ethanol mandate. The more efficient switchgrass–ethanol would require 4.4–6.6 million ha-yr agricultural land to meet 40–60% of bio-ethanol demands for year 2022. As the most productive crop per hectare of land, sugarcane bagasse require about 2.4 million ha-yr land to supply sufficient amount of bagasse to meet up to 60% of bio-ethanol national demands.

Keywords: Lignocellulose–ethanol; Farm-to-fuel; Bio-conversion methods; Land footprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136403211500115X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:46:y:2015:i:c:p:100-119

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.02.027

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().