Publications
Biochemical production of ethanol and water-immiscible biofuel from lignocellulosic biomass: A comparative analysis of environmental and economic performance
Two separate processes to produce either ethanol or a fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) - identical to oil-derived biodiesel - via the fermentation of sugars obtained from lignocellulosic materials were analyzed in terms of economic and environmental metrics. Simplified process models were introduced and employed to estimate fuel production, net energy consumption, minimum fuel selling price, and water consumption for both processes. Monte Carlo analyses were carried out to identify the parameters governing process performance, and an analysis of the impact of potential improvements to the FAEE process was performed. The results of the analyses, capturing both the current state of technology development as well as paths to improve the performance of the FAEE process relative to that for producing ethanol, are presented. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2012 AIChE Spring National Meeting and 8th Global Congress on Process Safety (Houston, TX 4/1-5/2012).