Bioethanol production from various waste papers: Economic feasibility and sensitivity analysis

As a significant fraction of municipal solid waste, waste paper is a potential source for producing bioethanol. In the present paper, bioethanol production from various waste papers (newspaper, office paper, cardboard and magazine) using an enzyme complex (Cellic Ctec 1) was evaluated from an economic standpoint. Four bases cases without pre-treatment and two state-of-the-art cases (including dilute acid pre-treatment for office paper and oxidative lime pre-treatment for newspaper) were constructed using laboratory experimental data, literature values, expert consultations and simulation using AspenPlus™. Several scenarios were also carried out to assess the sensitivity of various technology parameters (i.e. solids loading in saccharification, anaerobic digestion and fermentation efficiency, and sugar yields in pre-treatment). The sensitivity analysis suggested that the economic performance of bioethanol produced from waste paper could be improved significantly with an up to 25% reduction in minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) by increasing solids loading in saccharification and with a 6% reduction in MESP by enhancing fermentation efficiency. The comparison of the bioethanol selling price at pump (reference year 2009) and the petrol price showed bioethanol produced from newspaper, office paper and cardboard were economically competitive with petrol.

[1]  M. Holtzapple,et al.  Oxidative lime pretreatment of high-lignin biomass , 2001, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology.

[2]  Palligarnai T. Vasudevan,et al.  How to Estimate Utility Costs , 2006 .

[3]  David R Shonnard,et al.  Comparative Life‐Cycle Assessments for Biomass‐to‐Ethanol Production from Different Regional Feedstocks , 2008, Biotechnology progress.

[4]  T. K. Ghose.  Measurement of cellulase activities , 1987 .

[5]  N. Shah,et al.  The commercial performance of cellulosic ethanol supply-chains in Europe , 2009, Biotechnology for biofuels.

[6]  P. N. McFarlane,et al.  Anaerobic digestion of stillage from a pilot scale wood-to-ethanol process. II: Laboratory-scale digestion studies , 1986 .

[7]  T. Seager,et al.  Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Lignocellulosic Ethanol Production: Biochemical Versus Thermochemical Conversion , 2010, Environmental management.

[8]  A. Aden.  Biochemical Production of Ethanol from Corn Stover: 2007 State of Technology Model , 2008 .

[9]  Lian Pin Koh,et al.  The biofuel potential of municipal solid waste , 2009 .

[10]  K. Paustian,et al.  Energy and Environmental Aspects of Using Corn Stover for Fuel Ethanol , 2003 .

[11]  Richard J. Murphy,et al.  High-solids loading enzymatic hydrolysis of waste papers for biofuel production , 2012 .

[12]  Richard J. Murphy,et al.  Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from waste papers: sensitivity to the system boundary , 2012 .

[13]  Sara González-García,et al.  Environmental performance of lignocellulosic bioethanol production from Alfalfa stems , 2010 .

[14]  Mahdi Sharifzadeh,et al.  Technology performance and economic feasibility of bioethanol production from various waste papers , 2012 .

[15]  M. Galbe,et al.  Techno-Economic Evaluation of Bioethanol Production from Three Different Lignocellulosic Materials , 2008 .

[16]  A. Aden,et al.  An economic comparison of different fermentation configurations to convert corn stover to ethanol using Z. mobilis and Saccharomyces , 2009, Biotechnology progress.

[17]  Europäische Kommission,et al.  EU energy and transport in figures , 2010 .

[18]  Amie D. Sluiter,et al.  Determination of Structural Carbohydrates and Lignin in Biomass , 2004 .

[19]  A. Aden,et al.  Biochemical Production of Ethanol from Corn Stover: 2008 State of Technology Model , 2009 .

[20]  Ignacio Ballesteros,et al.  Ethanol production from steam-explosion pretreated wheat straw , 2006, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology.

[21]  Profiling Best Practices: An Explanatory Analysis of Box-Plant Trucking Logistics in the Paper Industry , 2004 .

[22]  Abhijit Dutta,et al.  Techno-Economic Analysis of Biochemical Scenarios for Production of Cellulosic Ethanol , 2010 .

[23]  P. Fluri,et al.  Use of fixed film and CSTR reactor for anaerobic treatment of stillage of wood hydrolysate , 1982, Biotechnology Letters.

[24]  Lei Wang,et al.  A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) comparison of three management options for waste papers: bioethanol production, recycling and incineration with energy recovery. , 2012, Bioresource technology.

[25]  Tiejun Wang,et al.  Aviation fuel synthesis by catalytic conversion of biomass hydrolysate in aqueous phase. , 2014 .

[26]  M. Wayman,et al.  Pretreatment of waste paper for increased ethanol yields , 2005, Biotechnology Letters.

[27]  T. Clark,et al.  Anaerobic digestion of wood ethanol stillage using upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor , 1987, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[28]  Hasan Selim,et al.  A network design model for biomass to energy supply chains with anaerobic digestion systems , 2014 .

[29]  J. Domínguez,et al.  Development of cost-effective media to increase the economic potential for larger-scale bioproduction of natural food additives by Lactobacillus rhamnosus , Debaryomyces hansenii , and Aspergillus niger. , 2009, Journal of agricultural and food chemistry.

[30]  Lee R Lynd,et al.  Conversion of paper sludge to ethanol. I: Impact of feeding frequency and mixing energy characterization , 2006, Bioprocess and biosystems engineering.

[31]  A L Stephenson,et al.  The environmental and economic sustainability of potential bioethanol from willow in the UK. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[32]  M. Holtzapple,et al.  Selectivity and delignification kinetics for oxidative short‐term lime pretreatment of poplar wood, part I: Constant‐pressure , 2011, Biotechnology progress.

[33]  M. Galbe,et al.  Techno‐Economic Evaluation of Producing Ethanol from Softwood: Comparison of SSF and SHF and Identification of Bottlenecks , 2008, Biotechnology progress.

[34]  Kelly N. Ibsen,et al.  Lignocellulosic Biomass to Ethanol Process Design and Economics Utilizing Co-Current Dilute Acid Prehydrolysis and Enzymatic Hydrolysis for Corn Stover , 2002 .