CONVERSION OF CORN STOVER TO ENERGY(BIOETHANOL)

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

In the present global situation, the desire and necessity for alternative transportation

fuels continues to grow at a rapid pace due to the rapid consumption and depletion of fossil

fuel reserves. In addition to reducing foreign oil dependency, bio-fuels from renewable

resources offer many benefits including sustainability, reduction of greenhouse gas

emissions, regional development of social structure and agriculture, and security of supply.

Researchers search for cheaper sources, such as cellulosic biomass, which happens to

be the most plentiful form of biological material on earth. Examples of cellulosic biomass

include corn stover (the parts of the corn plant not eaten such as stalks, leaves, and husks),

wood chips, bagasse, switchgrass, and fast growing hybrid trees

Biomass conversion into heat energy is still the most efficient process but not all of

energy requirement is in the form of heat. Biomass resources need to be converted into

chemical, electrical or mechanical energy in order to have widespread use. In general,

conversion technologies for biomass utilization may either be based on bio-chemical or

thermo-chemical conversion processes.

Bioethanol production is one of the most potential and realistic method for producing

renewable energy source. Bioethanol is a very eco-friendly fuel that can reduce typical

emissions by up to 70% as compared to fossil fuels. Biomass grown for conversion to

bioethanol consumes CO2 for photosynthesis from the atmosphere, which is released when

burning the bioethanol and thus resulting in a neutral CO2 cycle. Bioethanol is available in

various blends, most commonly E5, E10, E85, or E100 where the E represents bioethanol and
the number stands for the percentage of bioethanol in the blend. For example, E85 is 3 a

blend of 85% bioethanol and 15% gasoline.

CHAPTER II.

A. PROPERTIES OF CORNSTOVER

Corn stover contains considerable quantities of cellulose, a beta-linked glucose

polymer. In addition, it also contains hemicelluloses, in which the predominant sugars are

xylose and arabinose. The stover heat of combustion was estimated at 17.47 MJ·kg−1 in the

cool zone and 17.26 MJ·kg−1 in the warm zone. The composition of corn stover varied by

year and location, and this can be adjusted easily in the simulation model. The table below

shows the different composition of different biomass..

CORNSTOVER TO ENERGY

Biomass Conversion Process

The development of conversion technologies for the utilization of biomass resources

for energy growing at a fast pace. The figure below shows the different methods for

converting biomass into convenient fuel. Biomass conversion into heat energy is still the

most efficient process but not all of energy requirement is in the form of heat. Biomass

resources need to be converted into chemical, electrical or mechanical energy in order to have

widespread use. In general, conversion technologies for biomass utilization may either be

based on bio-chemical or thermo-chemical conversion processes.

Fig. 1. Methods of using biomass for energy [ CITATION Ser \l 13321 ]

Utilizing the energy from biomass can result either biological methods or thermochemical

processes. Biological methods cover solid biomass decomposition by fermentation and

anaerobic digestion processes yielding fuel in liquid or gaseous form. On the other hand

thermochemical processes consist of gasification or pyrolysis in order to perform a direct

combustion[CITATION Pek16 \l 13321 ]. Biochemical process is slower than thermochemical

conversion and the thermochemical where the biomass is converted into gases. Production of

thermal energy is the main goal for this conversion. Under biochemical conversion is the
anaerobic digestion, while in the thermochemical conversion includes combustion, pyrolysis,

and gasification.

C. ETHANOL

Ethanol or ethyl alcohol has existed since the beginning of recorded history. The

ancient Egyptians produced alcohol by naturally fermenting vegetative materials. Also in

ancient times, the Chinese discovered the art of distillation, which increases the concentration

of alcohol in fermented solutions. Ethanol was first prepared synthetically in 1826, through

the independent effort of Henry Hennel in Britain and S.G in France. Michael Faraday

prepared ethanol by the acid-catalyzed hydration of ethylene in 1828, in a process similar to

that used for industrial synthesis of ethanol today. The face of ethanol production technology

is old and ever changing. It is widely noted that centuries ago man discovered and began

employing fermentation technology to produce alcohol/ethanol.

The ethanol production process varies with the feedstock types. Depending on the

substrate complexity, various pretreatment methods are needed. For the production from

sugarcane, sugar beets and sorghum stalks, all of which contain simple sugars such as glucose

and sucrose, no pretreatment is needed except size reduction and pressing. For starchy such

as corn, sorghum and cassava, grinding or milling followed by enzyme hydrolysis is needed

to be obtain fermentable sugar. Lignocellulosic biomass requires more comprehensive

physical and chemical pretreatment to enzymatic hydrolysis to release simple sugars.

A. PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ETHANOL

An amount equal to 19–26 billion L (5–7 billion gallons) of ethanol per year can be

produced using corn stover availability of 82 million dry t/yr., depending on which ethanol

yield is assumed.
FIGURE 2.Shematic diagram of ethanol production from corn stover
Corn Stover Supplying and Pretreatment

Corn stover was collected from the farm, then delivered and stored in the factory.

After size reduction, the corn stover was soaked in 15 wt% aqueous ammonia at 60ıC for 8

hr. Through the pretreatment, approximately half of the lignin was removed, which benefited

the subsequent step (enzymatic digestibility of cellulose) a lot. At the same time, about 20%

hemicelluloses were hydrolyzed and so was a very small portion of cellulose. After the

pretreatment, the slurry was transported to the plate and frame filter. During the filtration, the

treated corn stover was obtained as the retentate, which was then transported to the medium

tank, and the filter liquid was transported to the flash drum to recycle the ammonia.
Ammonia Recycling and Lignin Gain

The filter liquid filled with ammonia was evaporated through a flash drum at 80ıC and

1atm, during which almost 96 wt% ammonia can be recycled. The steam containing ammonia

and almost one-third (wt/wt) water steam were absorbed by superfluous clean water in the

ammonia absorption tank, and would be reused in the next feedstock pretreatment. After flash

evaporation, much of the dissolved lignin precipitated from the liquid, and then separated by

another plate and frame filter, and the filter liquid from this process was used in the following

fermentation. The cake of filters had to be washed by clean water after filtration.

Simultaneous Saccharification Fermentation

Prehydrolysis prior to SSF was carried out to investigate whether the mass transport

of enzymes and substrate could be increased, thus increasing the productivity of enzymatic

hydrolysis and fermentation in SSF. Prehydrolysis of ammonia-treated lignocellulose by

complex cellulases was performed at 45ıC for 12 hr. The water-insoluble solids concentration

was 10 wt%. The subsequent SSF was performed with yeast cultivated on the hydrolyzates

with no additional enzymes. All the nutrients were added before prehydrolysis. The SSF

experiments were performed at pH 5 and 37ıC for 60 hr, and the baker’s yeast

Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used in SSF, which cannot utilizethe pentose, so only glucose

is converted to ethanol by yeast, and a little part of the glucose was used by the yeast for

growing. The maximum ethanol yield is approximately 85%, and the maximum ethanol

production of 17.14 g/L (1.74 wt%) was obtained. Since the fermentation is the conversion of

glucose to ethanol and carbon dioxide using yeast, approximately the same quantity of carbon

dioxide is gained at the same time.

The beer from the fermentation was first filtrated by a plate and frame filter or

separated by a centrifuge, the insoluble fermentation products were removed in this process.

The first step in ethanol purification was a beer column, and the vapor exiting the beer

column contained 35 wt% ethanol and fed into the rectification column. A mixture of nearly

azeotropic (92.2%) ethanol and water from the rectification column was purified to pure

(99.5%) ethanol using a vapor-phase molecular sieves. Approximately half of the energy was

combusted in the two distillation columns. Water molecules were trapped and absorbed

inside the microporous beads, whereas the ethanol molecules passed around them. The

molecular sieves were regenerated when the trapped water was evaporated by heating it in an

offline operation.

Final Products

The final product, fuel ethanol, was produced after adding 5% denaturant, and was held in the

product tank prior to transport out for sale. Distillers’ dried grains (DDG) was another co-

product, which included cellulase, other fermentation end products, cellulose, glucose,

arabinose and moisture. As stated in the Simultaneous Saccharification Fermentation section,

quite a lot of CO2 was generated along with ethanol in the fermentation and its quality was

relatively high. However, its value was hard to investigate since its potential market demand

has not been reported. Therefore, the value of CO2 was not included as a co-product.
Given:

Total waste generation in a year=14million kg= 154320.358353tons

Cv=17.26Mj/kg=4349.52kWh/ton

Conversion efficiency at 25%=1087.38kWh/ton

Calculation:

(total waste generation∈a year )(conversion efficiency )

Power produced=
( 154320.358353 tons ) ( 1087.38
ton
kWh
) =38,566.607 kW
( 4349.52 kW )
 B. ETHANOL MANDATE

The Philippines was the first country in Southeast Asia to enact biofuels legislation.

The blend mandate was gradually increased in accordance with the Biofuels Act 2007, ending

with a 10 percent ethanol requirement in August 2011, which remains the current mandate. In

table below, the aspirational goals to raise ethanol mandate are based on the National

Renewable Energy Program of the Philippine Energy Plan 2012-2030 to meet the

government’s Energy Reform Agenda.

Worldwide energy consumption has increased 17 fold in the last century and

emissions of CO2, SO2 and NOx from fossil-fuel combustion are primary causes of

atmospheric pollution. Bioethanol is a very eco-friendly fuel that can reduce the typical

emissions of fossil fuel by up to 70%. Many energy production and utilization cycles based

on cellulosic biomass have near-zero greenhouse gas emissions on a lifecycle basis. The

biomass grown for conversion to bioethanol takes in CO 2 for photosynthesis from the

atmosphere, this is released by burning the Bioethanol, thus completing the cycle of CO 2. It is

estimated that by using biofuels, the total fossil energy use (coal, oil, and natural gas) and

greenhouse gas emissions (fossil CO2, N2O, and CH4) on a life-cycle basis are 102% and

113% lower, respectively. Besides, ethanol contains 35% oxygen on a weight basis which

assists further in complete combustion of fuel which leading to reduced tail pipe emissions.

Ethanol is also being used as a substitute for MTBE (methyltertiary-butyl-ether), which was

the major oxygenate added to fuels until a few years ago when it was determined to be a

carcinogenic pollutant in ground water.

Based from the above process the annual production of ethanol is 1.42 million
kg that can produced power amounting to 38,566.607kW. It is known that 1 acre
yields about 130 bushels (3.65 tons at 15% moisture) of corn,5 and about 1 ton of
harvested corn yields 1 dry ton of stover. About 30% of the stover is currently thought
to be available for collection. The remaining stover needs to be left on the field for
erosion control. The dry milling process traditionally generates two products only
ethanol and DDG, an animal feed product. Saccharification and fermentation occurs
simultaneously in some plants. It is known as the simultaneous saccharification and
fermentation (SSF) in which it is used to minimize inhibition of enzyme activity and
the yeast cells by the product (sugar). SSF is the process used in this study.
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