Techno-economic analysis of bioethanol production in Africa: Tanzania case

Abstract

In this paper a techno-economic analysis for bioethanol production in Africa for Tanzania case is presented. It is shown conversion pathways from sugar cane juice and molasses, at three levels of technological schemes, where the first one includes a selection of widely conventional technologies, the second level with a more sophisticated fermentation technology and the third level using a different broth and solid treatment for ethanol production. A simulation procedure was taking into account in order to evaluate the conversion pathways schemes using different scenarios of raw material pretreatment, using Aspen Plus software, that include productivity analysis and energy requirements for each process configuration. Also an economical evaluation of each technology level and each scenario is shown. A comparison and discussions for each technological level and each scenario for bioethanol production in Tanzania is presented. These results served as the basis to draw recommendations on technological and economic feasibility aspects for the implementation of a national biofuel production programme in Africa. The study helped to identify the best technological schemes for producing fuel-grade alcohol from the various raw materials analysed.