Title:
Industrial Demonstration of Second Generation Bioethanol Production in Italy: The BIOLYFE Project
Author(s):
Chiaramonti, D., Giovannini, A., Frattini, A., Oriani, L.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Market opportunities for second generation biofuels in Italy are considerable, given the 2008 diesel and gasoline consumption of 26 Mt and 11 Mt respectively, and therefore the need for biofuels (5.75 % in 2010 and 10 % in 2020) is large as well. The production of first generation biofuels in sufficient amount to meet these targets would therefore require more than 27 % of Italian agricultural land in 2020 or, in a more realistic approach, the import of large quantities of feedstocks or biofuels. This situation stimulated new research activities in the biofuel area during the last years, as well as the interest of industrial groups in developing innovative technologies and demonstration projects. The EU BIOLYFE project focuses on demonstrating the hydrolysis and fermentation steps at industrial scale of the lignocellulosic bioethanol process: nevertheless, the overall industrial project will demonstrate the entire chain, thus including the up-stream and downstream process, namely innovative pre-treatment steps and product separation/utilization. The demo plant production capacity, initially planned as 20 ktEtOH/y, will be around 40 ktEtOH/y: innovative technologies, new enzyme cocktails and fermentation microorganism will be investigated at industrial scale, while the product (2nd gen bioethanol) will be distributed in a dedicated fuel station and tested in engines and cars. The main goals of the BIOLYFE project can be summarised as follows: -Development on novel industrial-scale technologies for lignocellulosic bioethanol production (based on an already selected group of biomass feedstocks) -Design, construction, commissioning and testing of an industrial demonstration unit based on innovative technologies specifically focused on the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation steps. The plant scale, initially planned at =10 t/h biomass input and 2.5 tEtOH/h, i.e. = 20.000 tonEtOH/y, has been recently increased to 40.000 tonEtOH/y. -Integration of the hydrolysis and fermentation demo unit into a complete lignocellulosic bioethanol industrial demo plant (i.e. including fuel feeding, pretreatment, and distillation and product recovery) and process optimization through extensive testing of the entire lignocellulosic bioethanol plant -Distribution and use of products under real operational conditions, thus including installation of a distribution system and use in vehicles -Assessment of environmental and socio-economic performances -Dissemination of project results to a wide technical/non-technical audience The project, started in January 2010, will be developed over a 4 year project. The project Consortium, led by Chemtex/M&G-Italy, is composed by research Institutes (ENEA-IT, Lund University-SE), industries (Novozymes A/S-DK), and consulting companies specialized in biomass and biofuels (Agriconsulting-IT, IUS-DE, WIP-DE): CNR-Istituto Motori, Taurus Energy, Eta-Renewable Energies and IFEU also collaborate to the project. Authors wish to acknowledge the European Commission DG TREN for the support given to project through the 7FP.
Keywords:
second generation biofuels, lignocellulosic bioethanol
Topic:
Fuels from biomass
Subtopic:
Second generation biofuel production via biological processing
Event:
18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
OD5.3
Pages:
1635 - 1639
ISBN-13:
978-88-89407-56-1
ISBN-10:
88-89407-56-5
Paper DOI:
10.5071/18thEUBCE2010-OD5.3
Price:
FREE
