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From plant materials to ethanol by means of supercritical fluid technology
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2008-02-14
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Volume
46
Issue
3
Start Page
299
End Page
321
Citation
Journal of Supercritical Fluids 46 (3): 299-321 (2008-10-01)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
Publisher
Elsevier
Plant and waste material from agriculture or food industry represents on of the the worlds largest resources of ligno-cellulose and therefore fermentable sugars. Conversion of these sugars to ethanol is one way to take optimized profit of the solar energy incorporated in the plant growth. For the target product of ethanol of >99.8 wt.%, there are several plant material sources available. The carbohydrate compounds of these materials can be pretreated and partly hydrolyzed by nearcritical water. CO2 dissolved in water may be used as catalyst. Hydrolysis is favorably accomplished by enzymatic catalysis. The product streams from the hydrolytic treatment are fermented. The resulting diluted ethanol solution is processed by multistage counter-current supercritical carbon dioxide extraction to ethanol of 99.8 wt.% concentration. Non-fermentable residues may be subjected to a second hydrolysis or transferred to a biogas production. Solid residues of the biogas reactor, in particular lignin containing fractions, can be oxidized with near and supercritical water to mainly gas and a smaller fraction of mainly short chain fatty acids, which can be reintroduced to the biogas reactor.
Subjects
Bio-ethanol
Hot water
Hydrolysis
Ligno-cellulose
Renewable resources
Supercritical
DDC Class
540: Chemie
570: Biowissenschaften, Biologie
600: Technik