Enhancement of bioethanol production through process synthesis, integration, and optimization

世界正开始见证使用新的“生物炼制”技术生产化学品的重大转变。事实上，生物炼制将有助于将食品纳入工业加工。例如，谷物可用于生产食品，而作物残茬、纤维副产品和其他纤维素材料可用于工业动力、生化制品和燃料。只有通过这些综合加工厂，生物基工业部门才能在不增加食品成本或使农业生产偏离其主要目标的情况下得到扩张。其中一种产品是生物乙醇，它是一种可再生和可持续的能源，可以显著减少污染。我们建议研究各种显著降低主要由纤维素材料生产的生物乙醇的生产成本的方法。生产生物乙醇的成本的主要部分是由于从发酵液中分离乙醇的高能量需求。最终乙醇浓度通常很低，这一事实使问题更加复杂。在本研究项目中，建议研究各种发酵和混合分离（吸附，膜，除痰）策略，以解决低乙醇浓度的困难。最先进的工艺合成、整合和优化将用于设计最佳的乙醇生产流程。将从技术和经济的角度对许多情景进行全面评估。四名申请者拥有完成该项目所需的广泛专业知识：发酵、吸附和膜分离以及优化。共有四名研究生和三名本科生将参加这个项目，并将接触到乙醇生产工厂的各个方面。

The world is starting to witness a significant shift in the production of chemicals using new "biorefinery"technologies. Indeed, biorefinery will contribute to the integration of food into industrial processing. Forinstance, cereals can be used to produce food, whereas crop residues, fibrous byproducts, and other cellulosicmaterials can serve for industrial power, biochemicals, and fuels. It is only through these integrated processingplants that the biobased industrial sector will expand without increasing the cost of food either divertingagricultural production from its primary goal. One such product is bioethanol, which is a renewable andsustainable energy source that can significantly reduce pollution. We propose to investigate various ways ofsignificantly reducing the production cost of bioethanol produced mainly from cellulosic materials.A major portion of the cost to produce bioethanol is due to the high energy requirement for separating ethanolfrom the fermentation broth. This problem is compounded by the fact that the final ethanol concentration iscommonly very low. In this research project, it is proposed to investigate various fermentation and hybridseparation (adsorption, membrane, dephlegmator) strategies in order to address the difficulties of low ethanolconcentrations. State-of-the-art process synthesis, integration, and optimization will be used to devise the bestpossible ethanol production flow sheets. Numerous scenarios will be assessed completely from both atechnological and economic point of view.The four applicants have a wide range of expertise necessary to complete this project: fermentation, adsorptionand membrane separations, and optimization. A total of four graduate students and three undergraduatestudents will take part in this project and will be exposed to the various facets of an ethanol production plant.