Selection of process alternatives for lignocellulosic bioethanol production using a MILP approach

This work proposes a decision-making framework for the selection of processes and unit operations for lignocellulosic bioethanol production. Process alternatives are described by its capital and operating expenditures, its contribution to process yield and technological availability information. A case study in second generation ethanol production using Eucalyptus globulus as raw material is presented to test the developed process synthesis tool. Results indicate that production cost does not necessarily decrease when yield increases. Hence, optimal processes can be found at the inflexion point of total costs and yield. The developed process synthesis tool provides results with an affordable computational cost, existing optimization tools and an easy-to-upgrade description of the process alternatives. These features made this tool suitable for process screening when incomplete information regarding process alternatives is available.