Ethanol from Nordic wood raw material by simplified alkaline soda cooking pre-treatment

A. von Schenck, N. Berglin and J. Uusitalo

Applied Energy, 2013, vol. 102, issue C, 229-240

Abstract: Ethanol production from lignocellulosic raw materials will generate multiple streams, since only a certain fraction of the material can be converted into sugars and then fermented to ethanol. This requires a ‘poly-generation’ approach, where by-products also must have high value (e.g. lignin, sugars from hemicellulose). To reach the large scale required for profitability, it is proposed that the best way is to integrate the new processes with existing industries, preferably those that already operate biomass-to-materials or biomass-to-fuels plants. One of the largest industry branches in this respect is the pulp and paper industry. Production of second generation ethanol (or other products) via sugars from lignocellulosic materials includes a relatively costly pre-treatment of the raw material in order to separate the lignin from the cellulose. This separation of the wood components already takes place in the chemical pulp mill, and the long proven technology in pulp production known as soda cooking (pre-treatment under alkaline conditions) is further evaluated in this study. It can be directly integrated into the recovery of chemicals and energy in the pulp mill. The pre-treatment of the lignocellulosic material studied in this work is alkaline and sulphur-free, and results in a technically pure cellulose to be fed to the hydrolysis stage, which makes it different compared to most of the other processes that aim to produce ethanol from lignocelluloses. The process chain from enzymatic hydrolysis to ethanol is very similar to that being used today for grain ethanol.

Keywords: Alkaline pretreatment; Nordic wood material; Lignin outtake; Ethanol production; SSF (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.10.003

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