Techno‐economic analysis of sugar production from lignocellulosic biomass with utilization of hemicellulose and lignin for high‐value co‐products

Abstract

Sugar derived from lignocellulosic biomass is an important intermediate product, often used for the production of biofuels and value‐added chemicals. It is therefore essential to understand and reduce the production costs of sugar derived from lignocellulosic biomass. This study evaluates the economic feasibility of a biorefinery producing sugar from lignocellulosic biomass using a combination of autohydrolysis and mechanical refining pretreatment. This biorefinery is self‐sufficient in energy, producing excess electricity for sale. The minimum sugar selling price (MSSP) that achieves a zero net present value is $446/metric ton. The possibility of using the two main by‐products, dissolved hemicellulose and lignin, for the production of high‐value products, xylitol and polyol, is also evaluated. When dissolved hemicellulose is used for xylitol production, the MSSP decreases to $347/metric ton. When lignin is liquefied to produce polyol, the MSSP is further reduced to $342/metric ton. External energy (natural gas) must be purchased if xylitol and polyol are produced. An analysis of capital and operating costs reveals that, although the production of xylitol and polyol incurs additional capital investment, their correspondingly high values outweigh the additional capital costs. Sensitivity analysis results indicate that efficient recovery and recycling of expensive chemicals like acetone and glycerol are key to the success of the biorefinery. Yields of xylitol and polyol also have strong impacts on the process economics. © 2020 Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Sugarcane bagasse valorization to xylitol: Techno‐economic and life cycle assessment

“…Giuliano et al 23 determined the selling price to be US$3.5/kg, and concluded that co-production of ethanol and xylitol was desirable. Ou et al 24 performed TEA of a sugarcane production facility co-producing xylitol and polyols, and determined variation in sugar price with production of xylitol and polyols. For a feedstock processing capacity of 1500 MT/day, the selling price of xylitol was US$2/kg.…”

Rapid repurposing of pulp and paper mills, biorefineries, and breweries for lignocellulosic sugar production in global food catastrophes

“…The expected production cost in the NSM was $0.43/kg (dry sugar mixture) in 2020 US dollar equivalents for the concentrated sugar stream for an expected plant lifetime of 30 years and an internal rate of return of 10%. The cost is conservatively high compared to other analyses of sugar production from lignocellulosic biomass, not only in terms of production cost, but also in terms of capital cost per unit of installed production capacity (Michels, 2014;Moncada et al, 2018;Ou et al, 2021), These are generally higher than the historical sugar spot prices in the last five years, ranging between $0.22-0.50/kg (Macrotrends, 2021).…”

Valorisation of xylose to renewable fuels and chemicals, an essential step in augmenting the commercial viability of lignocellulosic biorefineries

“…Particularly, in the last five years the researchers have attempted to integrate the developed process modules with the technoeconomics to understand the benefits associated with holistic utilization of all biomass components. For instance, Ou et al (2021) showed that if 1500 tonnes of miscanthus was processed for sugar production per day, the minimum sugar selling price (MSSP) was $446/tonnes. 178 However, when the xylose stream obtained when fed-batch strategy fermentation was adopted.…”

“…For instance, Ou et al (2021) showed that if 1500 tonnes of miscanthus was processed for sugar production per day, the minimum sugar selling price (MSSP) was $446/tonnes. 178 However, when the xylose stream obtained when fed-batch strategy fermentation was adopted. 180 Lately Ranganathan (2020) showed that when glucose derived from rice straw was used for ethanol production, but xylose was kept intact, the cost of ethanol was $0.627/L.…”

“…For instance, Ou et al (2021) showed that if 1500 tonnes of miscanthus were processed for sugar production per day, the minimum sugar selling price (MSSP) would be $446 per tonne. 178 However, when the xylose stream obtained after auto-hydrolysis was diverted for xylitol production, the MSSP was reduced to $347 per tonne. Similar observations were made by Giuliano et al (2018), who found that if only cellulosic ethanol was targeted from steam exploded corn stover, the payback ethanol price was €1.62 per kg.…”