Abstract
This study investigates technoeconomic performance of standalone biorefinery concepts that utilize hybrid organic solvent and steam explosion pretreatment technique. The assessments were made based on a mathematical process model developed in UniSim Design software using inhouse experimental data. The work was motivated by successful experimental applications of the hybrid pretreatment technique on lignocellulosic feedstocks that demonstrated high fractionation efficiency into a cellulose-rich, a hemicellulose-rich and lignin streams. For the biorefinery concepts studied here, the targeted final products were ethanol, organosolv lignin and hemicellulose syrup. Minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) and Internal rate of return (IRR) were evaluated as economic indicators of the investigated biorefinery concepts. Depending on the configuration, and allocating all costs to ethanol, MESP in the range 0.53–0.95 €/L were required for the biorefinery concepts to break even. Under the assumed ethanol reference price of 0.55 €/L, the corresponding IRR were found to be in the range −1.75–10.7%. Hemicellulose degradation and high steam demand identified as major sources of inefficiencies for the process and economic performance, respectively. Sensitivity of MESP and IRR towards the most influential technical, economic and market parameters performed.
Highlights
The transition from fossil-based economy into bio-based economy is high on the agenda both at the national and international levels
Lignocellulosic biomass has a great potential to be utilized as bioenergy feedstock due to the high volume of residues generated from the production of pulp and timber, which derives during harvesting and thinning of trees onsite as well as during debarking and sawing at the production facilities
The stillage and organics stream combine solid residuals as well as degraded cellulose and hemicellulose derivatives formed during alcohol fermentation such as glycerol, acetic acid, acetaldehydes and so on
Summary
The transition from fossil-based economy into bio-based economy is high on the agenda both at the national and international levels. Lignocellulosic biomass has a great potential to be utilized as bioenergy feedstock due to the high volume of residues generated from the production of pulp and timber, which derives during harvesting and thinning of trees onsite as well as during debarking and sawing at the production facilities. In the case of Sweden, efficient utilization of lignocellulosic wood is crucial to channel the vast feedstock potential for enabling impactful transition. A resource-efficient way of converting lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals is through fractionation into biomass basic components, namely cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. These components can separately be converted to fuels, chemicals, and materials through different thermo-chemical and biochemical processes. The thermo-chemical path essentially involves high-temperature conversion step, such as gasification, e.g., References [1,2], pyrolysis, Energies 2019, 12, 4206; doi:10.3390/en12214206 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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