Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
O. Mafe1, S. Davies2, J. Hancock2, C. Du3 and J. McKechnie1
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
The production of fuels, plastics, chemicals and speciality chemicals from lignocellulosic biomasses via any biochemical route
requires a significant amount of pretreatment before efficient hydrolysis of the carbohydrate fractions can be achieved. Without
pretreatments, low product yields would be achieved, resulting in an uneconomical production process. Though essential to the
production process, pretreatments are expensive and energy intensive. Consequently, a lot of research has looked at optimising
the sugar yield and reducing costs in order to make the production of products from lignocellulosic biomass competitive. Here,
a mathematical model for the evaluation of the energy required during the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for the
production of ethanol was developed. The model was developed using the dilute acid pretreatment process reported by National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as the basis. It was then modified and applied to other common pretreatment processes,
such as alkali and steam explosion pretreatments. The energy consumption results of the various pretreatments were examined
and compared and some key inferences were deduced.