Ethanol annual production

By 2007, about 4% of all the fuel sold or dispensed to U.S. motorists came from renewable sources, which is almost 5 billion gallons of renewable fuels. New and expanded plants now under construction are expected to push the annual production of ethanol well above this level. 

Also, a Spanish company (Abengoa Bioenergy) has developed a process for the conversion of ligno-cellulosic biomass to ethanol based on SSF. A demonstration plant on the basis of wheat and barley straw has been operating in Salamanca since 2006, with an annual production capacity of five million litres of ethanol (Abengoa, 2006). 

The estimated cost of constructing a 40 million-gal ethanol facility in the San Joaquin Valley is 55 million (9). Amortizing that investment over an expected useful life of 20 yr at a discount rate of 5% generates an amortized expense of 4.41 million/yr. Dividing that cost by the expected annual production of 40 million gal generates an average amortized cost of 0.11/gal of ethanol. 

Microbial amino acids are mostly produced in Japan 6). The annual production of amino acids in Japan had reached a level of 300 million dollars in 197747). Microbial amino acids can be produced directly from intermediates or by enzymatic methods. A variety of substrates are used for microbial growth. These include molasses (especially beet), hydrolyzate, glucose, xylose, acetic acid, methanol, ethanol, benzoic acid, and n-paraflin. Investigations are being made in the search for inexpensive and easily available carbon sources 48). 

Acetic Acid. Acetic acid is the most important carboxylic acid produced industrially. The annual production in the United States in 1999 was almost 15.7 billion lb. As with many compounds produced on a large scale, acetic acid has several different commercial processes. The carbonylation of methanol is now the dominant route. (This process was described earlier in this chapter in the section Methanol .) The oxidation of acetaldehyde, ethanol, and butane are also important. The percent world capacity for virgin acetic acid... 

A new risk arising in the mixing process is the ethanol released in the primary reaction, which temporarily exceeds current process limits. The resulting annual output of ethanol waste product is 540 t. 

Despite the efficiency of the manufacture of ethanol from petrochemical feedstocks, much of the world s production is based on a fermentation process. Over the past 75 years in the United States, where the total annual production now stands at just under 4 million tonnes, the source of this basic chemical feedstock has swung away from fermentation to petrochemistry and back again (Table 6.1). The carbon source for the fermentation is glucose derived from starch (see Section 6.6). An even larger quantity, about 9.5 million tonnes, is produced each year in Brazil from cane sugar. Nowadays the prime consumer is the motor car. 

At present, the annual production capacity of fuel ethanol from corn is 1.02 million ton and test production of fuel energy from sorghum is 5,000 tons in China, respectively. The annual production capacity of bio-diesel is about 20,000 tons by using waste oil, barbadosnut, Chinese pistache and coleseed etc. as raw materials. 

About 61% of the cost of producing ethanol (46(/ per liter) in such a large-production plant is for the com substrate itself (28 /1) (Table IV). The next largest input is for coal to fuel the fermentation/distillation process, but this was only M (Table IV). These ethanol production costs include a small charge for pollution control (6 per liter), which is probably a low estimate. In smaller plants with an annual production of 150,0001/yr, the cost per liter increases to as much as 6(4 per liter. Overall, the per liter... 

Gasohol boosts octane rating and reduces emissions of carbon monoxide. From a resource viewpoint, because of its photosynthetic origin, alcohol may be considered a renewable resource rather than a depletable fossil fuel. Ethanol is most commonly produced biochemically by fermentation of carbohydrates. Brazil, a country that produces copious amounts of fermentable sugar from sugarcane, has been a leader in the manufacture of ethanol for fuel uses, with an annual production rate of about 24 billion liters. However, due to sugarcane crop shortfalls in 2009-2010, Brazil actually had to import some ethanol from the United States in early 2011 to make up for a deficiency in this fuel. 

The proportion of ethanol produced by the synthetic and the fermentation processes is largely determined by the production costs, the market condition, and the govermnent policies at the time. In 1935, 90% of the United States supply of industrial ethanol came from fermentation plants less than 10% was of synthetic origin. By 1954, 70% was synthetic, and by 1963, synthetic ethanol accounted for 91% of the production (Lowenheim and Moran 1975). However, the trend has reversed since the early 1980s. During the past 25 years, the annual production of ethanol by the United States and Brazil, the two largest ethanol producers in the world, increased dramatically (O Table 3.6), whereas the United States production of synthetic... 

McCoy 1998 0 Table 3.7). The BC International facility has an annual production capacity of 20 million gal, which is comparable to or larger than the capacity of over 35 United States companies that are producing fuel ethanol from grains or waste materials (http //www.ethanolrfa.org). Positive results at the BC International plant can lead to expanded commercial uses of recombinant bacteria for the conversion of lignocellu-losic material to ethanol. 

The main difference in the three synthesis routes detected so far— DA-SHF, DA-SHCF, and DA-SSCF—is the hydrolysis and fermentation reactor distributions. Then, a comparison of annual fixed costs for reactor tanks is used in this level as a final factor. The reacting volume was estimated by relating the volume flow obtained from the simulations and the dilution rate reported in Table 2.11. The total reactor volume was then estimated as 20% above the reacting volume, and four different tank capacities were considered in order to achieve the total reactor volume (Table 2.12). The tank cost estimations were based on the data reported by Aden et al. (2002) with a linear depreciation in 10 years. Table 2.13 shows the annual fixed cost and the annual production for each option, from which unit costs per gallon of ethanol were estimated. 

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