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An economic and environmental comparison of a biochemical and a thermochemical lignocellulosic ethanol conversion processes

An economic and environmental comparison of a biochemical and a thermochemical lignocellulosic... With the world’s focus on rapidly deploying second generation biofuels technologies, there exists today a good deal of interest in how yields, economics, and environmental impacts of the various conversion processes of lignocellulosic biomass to transportation fuels compare. Although there is a good deal of information regarding these conversion processes, this information is typically very difficult to use on a comparison basis because different underlying assumptions, such as feedstock costs, plant size, co-product credits or assumed state of technology, have been utilized. In this study, a rigorous comparison of different biomass to transportation fuels conversion processes was performed with standard underlying economic and environmental assumptions so that exact comparisons can be made. This study looked at promising second-generation conversion processes utilizing biochemical and thermochemical gasification technologies on both a current and an achievable state of technology in 2012. The fundamental finding of this study is that although the biochemical and thermochemical processes to ethanol analyzed have their individual strengths and weaknesses, the two processes have very comparable yields, economics, and environmental impacts. Hence, this study concludes that based on this analysis there is not a distinct economic or environmental impact difference between biochemical and thermochemical gasification processes for second generation ethanol production. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Cellulose Springer Journals

An economic and environmental comparison of a biochemical and a thermochemical lignocellulosic ethanol conversion processes

Foust, Thomas; Aden, Andy; Dutta, Abhijit; Phillips, Steven
Cellulose , Volume 16 (4) – Jun 10, 2009
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References (58)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Subject
Chemistry; Polymer Sciences ; Organic Chemistry; Physical Chemistry ; Bioorganic Chemistry
ISSN
0969-0239
eISSN
1572-882X
DOI
10.1007/s10570-009-9317-x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

With the world’s focus on rapidly deploying second generation biofuels technologies, there exists today a good deal of interest in how yields, economics, and environmental impacts of the various conversion processes of lignocellulosic biomass to transportation fuels compare. Although there is a good deal of information regarding these conversion processes, this information is typically very difficult to use on a comparison basis because different underlying assumptions, such as feedstock costs, plant size, co-product credits or assumed state of technology, have been utilized. In this study, a rigorous comparison of different biomass to transportation fuels conversion processes was performed with standard underlying economic and environmental assumptions so that exact comparisons can be made. This study looked at promising second-generation conversion processes utilizing biochemical and thermochemical gasification technologies on both a current and an achievable state of technology in 2012. The fundamental finding of this study is that although the biochemical and thermochemical processes to ethanol analyzed have their individual strengths and weaknesses, the two processes have very comparable yields, economics, and environmental impacts. Hence, this study concludes that based on this analysis there is not a distinct economic or environmental impact difference between biochemical and thermochemical gasification processes for second generation ethanol production.

Journal

Cellulose – Springer Journals

Published: Jun 10, 2009

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