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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Bioenergy Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #304857

Title: Process economics of renewable biorefineries: butanol and ethanol production in integrated bioprocesses from lignocellulosics and other industrial by-products

Author
item Qureshi, Nasib
item SINGH, VIJAY - University Of Illinois

Submitted to: Elsevier
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/15/2014
Publication Date: 8/13/2014
Citation: Qureshi, N., Singh, V. 2014. Process economics of renewable biorefineries: butanol and ethanol production in integrated bioprocesses from lignocellulosics and other industrial by-products. In: Qureshi, N., Hodge, D., Vertes, A., editors. Biorefineries: Integration Biochemical Processes for Liquid Biofuels. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier. p. 237-252.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: This chapter provides process economic details on production of butanol from lignocellulosic biomass and glycerol in integrated bioreactors where numerous unit operations are combined. In order to compare various processes, economic evaluations were performed using SuperPro Designer Software (version 9.0, built 8, special built 2012; Intelligen, Inc., Scotch Plains, NJ, USA). It is projected that combination or integration of unit operations is beneficial to the economics of biofuel butanol production from corn stover (a feedstock or substrate that is economically available in the Midwestern United States) and other lignocellulosic biomass. Butanol’s selling price was projected to be $1.10/kg ($3.42/gal) obtained from microbial fermentation of corn stover. While using glycerol as a substrate for butanol production and employing integrated technologies, its selling price was projected to be $0.23/kg. In the US the current selling price of gasoline is $3.57-3.69/gal ($1.15-$1.19/kg). Process economic evaluation was also performed for ethanol production from corn stover using integrated & consolidated process technologies and its selling price was projected to be $0.71-0.75/kg.