Issue 7, 2024

Design of an integrated biorefinery for bioethylene production from industrial forest byproducts

Abstract

The global forest industry is focused on developing waste valorization technologies. Regional resources use in biorefineries could be a strategy to improve profitability and mitigate the environmental impact of the involved industrial sectors, adding a new value chain to the forest industry. This study develops the mass and energy balance for bioethylene and lignin production from industrial pine sawdust (IS), a primary wood processing in Argentina. The proposed production process is composed of: (i) soda-ethanol pretreatment to remove the lignin; (ii) simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) to convert the cellulose to glucose and then to ethanol; (iii) ethanol recovery (95%); (iv) ethanol dehydration to bioethylene and; (v) bioethylene recovery through an ethylene tower and stripper. In the proposed process, 107 kg of bioethylene per ton of dry sawdust could be obtained, recovering 208 kg of lignin. Energy consumption is about 1885 MW h t−1 of dry sawdust. The highest consumption is in pretreatment and ethanol recovery processes, which can be reduced by 42%. Regarding economic assessment, the internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV) were 10.08% and 5.21 MM USD, respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that the most influential parameters are lignin and bioethylene market prices and energy and enzyme costs.

Graphical abstract: Design of an integrated biorefinery for bioethylene production from industrial forest byproducts

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 jan 2024
Accepted
26 feb 2024
First published
28 feb 2024

Green Chem., 2024,26, 4092-4102

Design of an integrated biorefinery for bioethylene production from industrial forest byproducts

R. E. Cardozo, N. M. Clauser, F. E. Felissia, M. C. Area and M. E. Vallejos, Green Chem., 2024, 26, 4092 DOI: 10.1039/D4GC00327F

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