Combined Biogas and Bioethanol Production: Opportunities and Challenges for Industrial Application

Alessandra Cesaro and Vincenzo Belgiorno
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Alessandra Cesaro: Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy
Vincenzo Belgiorno: Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 8, 1-24

Abstract: In the last decades the increasing energy requirements along with the need to face the consequences of climate change have driven the search for renewable energy sources, in order to replace as much as possible the use of fossil fuels. In this context biomass has generated great interest as it can be converted into energy via several routes, including fermentation and anaerobic digestion. The former is the most common option to produce ethanol, which has been recognized as one of the leading candidates to substitute a large fraction of the liquid fuels produced from oil. As the economic competitiveness of bioethanol fermentation processes has to be enhanced in order to promote its wider implementation, the most recent trends are directed towards the use of fermentation by-products within anaerobic digestion. The integration of both fermentation and anaerobic digestion, in a biorefinery concept, would allow the production of ethanol along with that of biogas, which can be used to produce heat and electricity, thus improving the overall energy balance. This work aims at reviewing the main studies on the combination of both bioethanol and biogas production processes, in order to highlight the strength and weakness of the integrated treatment for industrial application.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; biorefinery; digestate; energy; fermentation; stillage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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