Integration of pulp and paper technology with bioethanol production

Abstract

Background: Despite decades of work and billions of dollars of investments in laboratory and pilot plant projects, commercial production of cellulosic ethanol is only now beginning to emerge. Because of: (1)high technical risk coupled with; (2) high capital investment cost relative to ethanol product value, investors have not been able to justify moving forward with large scale projects on woody biomass. Results: Both issues have been addressed by targeting pulp and paper industry processes for application in bioethanol production, in Greenfield, Repurpose and Co-Location scenarios. Processes commercially proven in hundreds of mills for many decades have been tailored to the recalcitrance of the biomass available. Economically feasible cellulosic bioethanol can be produced in Greenfield application with hardwoods, but not softwoods, using kraft mill equipment. Both types of wood species can profitably produce ethanol when kraft mill or newsprint assets are Repurposed to a biorefinery. A third situation which can generate high financial returns is where excess kraft pulp is available at a mill which has no excess drying capacity. Each scenario is supported by laboratory simulation, engineering and financial analysis. While pretreatment is critical to providing access of the biomass to enzymes, capital investment per unit of ethanol produced can be attractive, even if ethanol yield is modest. Conclusions: Three guiding principles result in attractive economics: (1) re-use existing assets to the maximum extent; (2) keep the process as simple as possible; (3) match the recalcitrance of the biomass with the severity of the pretreatment. © 2013 Phillips et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.