Ethanol and biogas production from waste fibre and fibre sludge: The FibreEtOH concept

Katariina Kemppainen*, Liisa Ranta, Esa Sipilä, Anders Östman, Jari Vehmaanperä, Terhi Puranen, Kim Langfelder, Janne Hannula, Anne Kallioinen, Matti Siika-aho, Kai Sipilä, Niklas von Weymarn

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    27 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The FibreEtOH concept was developed to tackle major challenges in the production of ethanol from lignocellulosics. The two feedstocks, waste fibre fractionated from solid recovered fuel, and pulp and paper mill fibre sludge, provide all-year-round supply of biomass with high hexose content (44–56%) and acceptable ash content (13–14%). They can be liquefied and hydrolysed by enzymes rapidly without a thermal or acidic pre-treatment, although they contain some recalcitrant mannose- and galactose-containing polysaccharides that require additional helper enzymes for complete hydrolysis to monosaccharides. Fractionation of solid recovered fuel, continuous liquefaction, and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation to ethanol, as well as biogas production from the fermented residue were demonstrated in pilot-scale with good results. Total yield consisting of C6 sugar hydrolysis yield (57%) and fermentation yield (84%) was 48% after only 6 h continuous liquefaction and 21 h fermentation. Average biogas production rate was 655 dm3 kg−1 for fermentation residue from waste fibre and 400 dm3 kg−1 from fibre sludge with methane content of 69–75%. Based on other results a hydrolysis yield of 75% is reachable within the process concept if the residence time in fermentation is extended. In this scenario 1000 kg of dry feedstock would produce 170 kg ethanol, 310 kg biogas, 360 kg waste sludge and 170 kg CO2.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)60-69
    JournalBiomass and Bioenergy
    Volume46
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed
    Event1st International Conference on Lignocellulosic Ethanol - Copenhagen, Denmark
    Duration: 13 Oct 201015 Oct 2010

    Funding

    This project has been financed by the 7th Framework Program of the European Commission under grant agreement TREN/FP7EN/239341.

    Keywords

    • Lignocellulosic ethanol
    • High consistency hydrolysis
    • SSF
    • Waste fibre
    • Fibre sludge

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