Bioethanol source

Solvay Indupa announced the expansion of their manufacturing plant of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Santo Andre (Brazil) to a total amount of 360,000 mto per year. Thereby for this capacity extension the required monomer feedstock vinyl chloride should also be based on bio-ethylene (based on bioethanol sourced from Copersucar) and thus finally on sucrose and salt. " ... 

Bioethanol is becoming a viable solution as a source of renewable energy, as it is a non-fossil fuel. It may originate from renewable agricultural sources, resulting in cleaner combustion without any emissions to the air. 

Wood chips can also be utilized as such to produce bioethanol. The cellulose and hemicellulose material is hydrolyzed in the presence of acids (H2SO4, HCl, or HCOOH) or enzymes to yield glucose and other monosaccharides [16]. Lignin is separated by filtration as a solid residue and the monosaccharides are fermented to ethanol, which, in turn, is separated from water and catalyst by distillation. Ethanol can be used not only as energy source but also as a platform component to make various chemicals, such as ethene and polyethene. Today green acetaldehyde and acetic acid from wood-derived bioethanol is manufactured by SEKAB Ab, at the Ornskoldsvik Biorefinery of the Future industrial park. 

Both in the USA and the EU, the introduction of renewable fuels standards is likely to increase considerably the consumption of bioethanol. Lignocelluloses from agricultural and forest industry residues and/or the carbohydrate fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW) will be the future source of biomass, but starch-rich sources such as corn grain (the major raw material for ethanol in USA) and sugar cane (in Brazil) are currently used. Although land devoted to fuel could reduce land available for food production, this is at present not a serious problem, but could become progressively more important with increasing use of bioethanol. For this reason, it is important to utilize other crops that could be cultivated in unused land (an important social factor to preserve rural populations) and, especially, start to use cellulose-based feedstocks and waste materials as raw material. 

The expansion of the market, however, will depend considerably on the possibility of an efficient use of other biomass sources, particularly lignocellulosic-based materials, fast growing dedicated crops, and waste resources. Effective integration of bioethanol production into biorefineries will also be a key aspect in decreasing the price by a better use of all the components of biomass. 

Biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel originate from cereal crops such as plant oils, and sugar beets. Today the production cost of bioethanol cereal crops is still too high, which is the major reason why bioethanol has not made its breakthrough as a fuel source yet. When producing bioethanol from maize or sugar cane the raw material constitutes about 40-70% of the production cost. 

Today, an international awareness of the increasing C02 concentration in the atmosphere has resulted in the formation of the Kyoto Protocol, which has led many countries to make the commitment to decrease the emission of C02. One way of decreasing C02 emissions could be substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. The net production of C02 is significantly lower when bioethanol produced from plant materials is used as transportation fuel instead of fossil fuels, since C02 is assimilated... 

Outside of the use of cellulose for papermaking, starch is the most widely used plant-derived carbohydrate for non-food uses. Around 60 million tonnes of raw starch are produced per year for food and non-food uses. The US accounts for most of the world s production, utilising starch from maize, which accounts for over 80% of world production. The starch market in the US is driven by the large isoglucose sweetener market and now increasingly by the growing bioethanol market, which uses maize as a fermentation feedstock. Europe derives most of its starch from wheat and potatoes, which account for 8% and 5% of world starch production, respectively. The other main source of starch is cassava (tapioca), produced in South East Asia. Small amounts of oat, barley and rice are also exploited for starch production. Many edible beans are also rich in starches, but are not commonly exploited for non-food uses. 

First generation bioethanol and biodiesel production, which mainly makes use of cereal grains and vegetable oils, represents a growing source of high quantities of protein as a valuable by-product. Sanders et al. (2007) estimated that a 10% substitution of fossil transportation fuels worldwide by first generation biofuels would result in an annual production of 100 million tonnes of protein - about four times the proteins requirement of the world s human population. A direct result of this would be the saturation of traditional protein markets. New opportunities would therefore emerge for chemical production from proteins. 

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