Environmental potential of the use of CO2 from alcoholic fermentation processes. The CO2-AFP strategy

Abstract

A novel Carbon Dioxide Utilization (CDU) approach from a relatively minor CO2 emission source, i.e., alcoholic fermentation processes (AFP), is presented. The CO2 produced as a by-product from the AFP is estimated by examining the EtOH consumed per year reported by the World Health Organization in 2014. It is proposed that the extremely pure CO2 from the AFP is captured in NaOH solutions to produce one of the Top 10 commodities in the chemical industry, Na2CO3, as a good example of an atomic economy process. The novel CDU strategy could yield over 30.6Mt of Na2CO3 in oversaturated aqueous solution on using ca. 12.7Mt of captured CO2 and this process would consume less energy than the synthetic methodology (Solvay ammonia soda process) and would not produce low-value by-products. The quantity of Na2CO3 obtained by this strategy could represent ca. 50% of the world Na2CO3 production in one year.In terms of the green economy, the viability of the strategy is discussed according to the recommendations of the CO2Chem network, and an estimation of the CO2negative emission achieved suggests a capture of around 280.0Mt of CO2 from now to 2020 or ca. 1.9Gt from now to 2050. Finally, the results obtained for this new CDU proposal are discussed by considering different scenarios; the CO2 production in a typical winemaking corporation, the CO2 released in the most relevant wine-producing countries, and the use of CO2 from AFP as an alternative for the top Na2CO3-producing countries.