Enhancement and improvement of biofuel production processes

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The world is currently witnessing a significant shift in the production of chemicals using new "biorefinery" technologies. Indeed, biorefinery will contribute to the integration of food into industrial processing. For instance, cereals can be used to produce food, whereas crop residues, fibrous byproducts, and other cellulosic materials can serve for industrial power, biochemicals, and fuels. It is only through these integrated processing plants that the biobased industrial sector will expand without increasing the cost of food and diverting agricultural production from its primary goal. Such products are bioethanol and biobutanol, which are renewable and sustainable energy sources, may significantly reduce pollution. It is proposed to investigate various ways of significantly reducing the production cost of biofuel produced mainly from cellulosic materials. A major portion of the cost to produce bioethanol is due to the high energy requirement for separating ethanol from the fermentation broth. This problem is compounded by the fact that the final ethanol concentration is commonly very low. For biobutanol, the concentration is even lower. In this research program, it is proposed to investigate various fermentation and hybrid separation (adsorption, membrane, dephlegmator) strategies to address the difficulties of low bioalcohol concentrations. State-of-the-art process synthesis, integration, and optimization will be used to devise the best possible ethanol production flow sheets. Numerous scenarios will be assessed completely from both a technological and economic point of view. A good number of graduate and undergraduate students will take part in this program and will be exposed to the various facets of bioethanol and biobutanol production plants.