Sugarcane Bagasse: Assessment of Technological Alternatives for Process Integration for Sustainable Biofuels

Scientists from the Research Center for Sustainable Development in Industry and Energy and the Department of Chemical Engineering, Industrial University of Santander (Colombia) attempted to implement "design and process integration to compare several biorefinery topologies using the typical mass flow rate of residual biomass produced by the sugar industry". They considered four technological routes for the generation of ethanol from sugarcane bagasse, and simulated each of these processes by ASPEN PLUS^TM software, using the typical mass flow rate of residual biomass produced by the sugar industry. A basis of 1200 ton per day production was used.

Their results showed that the production route involving organic solvent treatment of the biomass, followed by simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF) gave the highest ethanol yield. The high ethanol yields were attributed to near-complete hydrolysis of hemicellulose, the high yield of xylose, and lignin solubilisation. On the other hand, the process route involving catalyzed steam explosion, followed by SSCF gave the lowest ethanol yield, due to poor lignin solubilisation. Heat integration methodologies were found necessary to improve energy efficiency in the processes. The full paper is published in the journal, Chemical Engineering Research and Design (URL above).