Processes of Bioethanol Production

Abstract

In this chapter, the production processes of bioethanol from diverse sources are described with some attention on the pretreatment of the raw material available. The production of bioethanol from sugarcane is described following the main production steps and some data are given on the process conditions and operations without going into the theoretical details for each of these operations. The case of corn starch is considered along with the main pretreatment options, such as dry-grind, dry-milling, and wet-milling processes. After the schematic presentation of a dry- and wet-milling ethanol production plant, the chapter ends with the basic notions of distillation as a final stage for the biofuel product.