Ethylene based on woody biomass—what are environmental key issues of a possible future Swedish production on industrial scale

Wood needed to produce 50,000 tonnes ethylene is ∼4.5 × 10⁵ tonnes (dry matter content 50 %) (unallocated).

One filter paper unit for cellulase enzymes according to Ferreira et al. (2009) is “the amount of enzyme that releases 1 micromole glucose per minute during hydrolysis reaction” and can be used to describe the activity of the enzyme. The enzyme product assessed in this study, however, does not only contain the enzyme but also some formulation materials. For this reason 1 g of enzyme product does not necessarily equal 1 g of enzyme rather it may vary for different products and product generations. The stated FPU dosage was, therefore, only used to calculate the enzyme product consumption for the current scenarios, since only data for current FPU/g enzyme product were available. For the future consumption scenarios, however, simplified estimates of possible future enzyme product consumptions were made, without the intention to project.

This high purity is not necessary for the production of ethylene. However, the model was set up to simulate production of biofuels, which require this high concentration.