Development and assessment of intensification alternatives on the lignocellulosic bioethanol production process

In this work, the design of the conventional process to produce bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass is developed. The conventional process consists of pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation of the biomass to obtain bioethanol and other bioproducts. The bioethanol is purified up to 99% through extractive distillation. Different options for intensification are proposed to improve such conventional process. The analysis of the developed production schemes is performed by simulation in the software Aspen Plus V.11. The first intensified scheme (I-1) consisted in the elimination of the glycerol purification column. The second intensified scheme (I-2) consisted in the elimination of the column that purifies the ethanol-ammonia mixture, by means of the implementation of a side stream. Scheme I-2 reduces the thermal load by 2.36%, which is associated with a lower capital cost.