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

世界正在开始见证使用新的“生物炼油”技术生产化学品的重大转变。事实上，生物精炼将有助于将食品整合到工业加工中。例如，谷物可以用来生产食物，而作物残渣、纤维副产品和其他纤维素材料可以用作工业动力、生物化学品和燃料。只有通过这些综合加工厂，以生物为基础的工业部门才能扩大，而不会增加粮食成本，也不会使农业生产偏离其主要目标。生物乙醇就是这样一种产品，它是一种可再生和可持续的能源，可以显著减少污染。我们建议研究各种方法来显著降低主要由纤维素材料生产的生物乙醇的生产成本。生产生物乙醇的成本的很大一部分是由于从发酵液中分离乙醇所需的高能量。乙醇的最终浓度通常很低，这让这个问题变得更加复杂。在本研究项目中，建议研究各种发酵和杂交分离(吸附、膜、去脂剂)策略，以解决低浓度乙醇的困难。将使用最先进的工艺合成、集成和优化来设计出可能的最佳乙醇生产流程图。许多方案将从技术和经济的角度进行完整的评估。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，他们将接触到乙醇生产厂的各个方面。

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.