Cellulose Conversion in Dry Grind Ethanol Plants

Authors: Michael Ladisch, Bruce Dale, Wally Tyner, Nathan Mosier, Youngmi Kim, Michael Cotta, Bruce Dien, Hans Blaschek, Edmund Laurenas, Brent Shanks, John Verkade, Chad Schell, Gene Petersen
Journal: Bioresource Technology, 99, 5157-5159 (2008).

Abstract

The expansion of the dry grind ethanol industry provides a unique opportunity to introduce cellulose conversion technology to existing grain to ethanol plants, while enhancing ethanol yields by up to 14%, and decreasing the volume while increasing protein content of distillers' grains. The technologies required are cellulose pretreatment, enzyme hydrolysis, fermentation, and drying. Laboratory data combined with compositional analysis and process simulations are used to present a comparative analysis of a dry grind process to a process with pretreatment and hydrolysis of cellulose in distillers' grains. The additional processing steps are projected to give a 32% increase in net present value if process modifications are made to a 100 million gallon/year plant.

 

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