No abstract

Bio‐based succinic acid is a potential building block for the production of renewable chemicals and polymers. The use of hemicellulosic hydrolyzate from sugarcane bagasse allows production of succinic acid without competing with food chains and increasing the biomass ‐aggregated value. This work assesses the economic impacts of integrating the production of ‐succinic acid on an optimized sugarcane biorefinery with the production of first‐generation ethanol and electricity. Process simulation was performed to obtain mass and energy balances of the entire process, from bagasse pre‐treatment to pentose fermentation and succinic acid recovery, using several pieces of technical information and data taken from the scientific literature. After ‐assessing the impacts of key economic variables through risk analysis, the obtained results were benchmarked against those of an optimized ethanol distillery. Calculated succinic acid production cost was US$ 2.32/kg, comparable to costs related to less expensive sugar sources. The integrated succinic acid biorefinery presented a slightly lower internal rate of return (IRR) compared to an ‐ethanol distillery. However, even when considering uncertainties, succinic acid production has a strong probability (84.6%) of achieving an IRR higher than 12%. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

No abstract

Sugarcane straw has become an available lignocellulosic biomass since the progressive introduction of the non-burning harvest in Brazil. Besides keeping this biomass in the field, it can be used as a feedstock in thermochemical or biochemical conversion processes. This makes feasible its incorporation in a biorefinery, whose economic profitability could be supported by integrated production of low-value biofuels and high-value chemicals, e.g., xylitol, which has important industrial and clinical applications. Herein, biotechnological production of xylitol is presented as a possible route for the valorization of sugarcane straw and its incorporation in a biorefinery. Nutritional supplementation of the sugarcane straw hemicellulosic hydrolyzate as a function of initial oxygen availability was studied in batch fermentation of Candida guilliermondii FTI 20037. The nutritional supplementation conditions evaluated were: no supplementation; supplementation with (NH4)2SO4, and full supplementation with (NH4)2SO4, rice bran extract and CaCl2·2H2O. Experiments were performed at pH 5.5, 30 °C, 200 rpm, for 48 h in 125 mL Erlenmeyer flasks containing either 25 or 50 mL of medium in order to vary initial oxygen availability. Without supplementation, complete consumption of glucose and partial consumption of xylose were observed. In this condition the maximum xylitol yield (0.67 g g−1) was obtained under reduced initial oxygen availability. Nutritional supplementation increased xylose consumption and xylitol production by up to 200% and 240%, respectively. The maximum xylitol volumetric productivity (0.34 g L−1 h−1) was reached at full supplementation and increased initial oxygen availability. The results demonstrated a combined effect of nutritional supplementation and initial oxygen availability on xylitol production from sugarcane straw hemicellulosic hydrolyzate.