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Preliminary estimate of the cost of ethanol production for ssf technology

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Abstract

The Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) recently completed a detailed engineering and economic analysis of the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) based wood-to-ethanol process. The reference-case design was based on a plant capacity of 1920 dry t/d and a wood cost of $42/dry t. For this case, the preliminary estimate of the production cost of the ethanol product is about $1.22/gal. The combined effects of optimizing SSF enzyme loading, increasing plant capacity to 10,000 dry t/d, and reducing wood cost to $34/dry t are to reduce the preliminary estimate of the production cost to about $0.95/gal. Other technological improvements may further reduce the production cost. Certain technical assumptions, inherent in the analysis, are being investigated further.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fuels and Chemicals, Research and Engineering Division, Solar Energy Research Institute, 80401, Golden, CO

    N. D. Hinman, D. J. Schell, J. Riley, P. W. Bergeron & P. J. Walter

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  1. N. D. Hinman
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  2. D. J. Schell
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  3. J. Riley
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  4. P. W. Bergeron
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  5. P. J. Walter
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Hinman, N.D., Schell, D.J., Riley, J. et al. Preliminary estimate of the cost of ethanol production for ssf technology. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 34, 639–649 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02920584

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02920584

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