Energy 35 (2010) 3081e3087

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Energy
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Ethanol production process from banana fruit and its lignocellulosic

residues: Energy analysis
H.I. Velásquez-Arredondo a, b, *, A.A. Ruiz-Colorado a, S. De Oliveira junior b
a
Grupo de Investigación Bioprocesos y Flujos Reactivos, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín, Calle 59 A N 63-20, Colombia
b
Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Escola Politécnica, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Professor Mello Moraes 2231, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Tropical countries, such as Brazil and Colombia, have the possibility of using agricultural lands for growing
Received 7 August 2008 biomass to produce bio-fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol. This study applies an energy analysis to the
Received in revised form production process of anhydrous ethanol obtained from the hydrolysis of starch and cellulosic and hem-
25 March 2010
icellulosic material present in the banana fruit and its residual biomass. Four different production routes
Accepted 30 March 2010
Available online 6 May 2010
were analyzed: acid hydrolysis of amylaceous material (banana pulp and banana fruit) and enzymatic
hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material (flower stalk and banana skin). The analysis considered banana plant
cultivation, feedstock transport, hydrolysis, fermentation, distillation, dehydration, residue treatment and
Keywords:
Hydrolysis
utility plant. The best indexes were obtained for amylaceous material for which mass performance varied
Banana fruit from 346.5 L/t to 388.7 L/t, Net Energy Value (NEV) ranged from 9.86 MJ/L to 9.94 MJ/L and the energy ratio
Ethanol was 1.9 MJ/MJ. For lignocellulosic materials, the figures were less favorable; mass performance varied from
Net energy value 86.1 to 123.5 L/t, NEV from 5.24 to 8.79 MJ/L and energy ratio from 1.3 to 1.6 MJ/MJ. The analysis showed,
Energy ratio however, that both processes can be considered energetically feasible.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction well studied. Ethanol fuelling provides many advantages: reduction of

fossil fuel consumption, increasing energy security and social benefits
Global warming, urban pollution, oil reserves depletion and derived from its production. Nevertheless, some political issues need
high cost of fossil fuels, have been the driving forces for current to be solved before expanding bioethanol production such as: use of
research on the use of alternative energy sources, particularly those land vs. food production, deforestation and biodiversity loss [6].
deriving from biomass. Ethanol produced from different renewable The most suitable feedstocks for ethanol production are high
feedstocks constitutes an alternative fuel for spark ignition engines. sugar-content crops such as sugarcane, sugar beets, molasses and
It is considered biodegradable, deriving from the use of solar fruits, because their main components are sugars that can be
energy stored in biomass, oxygenated and sulfur-free. Carbon in readily converted into ethanol [7]. The conversion of starch-based
ethanol has a vegetable origin and, therefore, when it is released crops such as corn, grains, and potatoes is more complex than that
during the combustion process, it will not contribute to increase of sugar-based crops because they contain carbohydrates that must
CO2 emissions [1e4]. be first converted into simple sugars (glucose) and then fermented
Although different processes for ethanol production from sugar, into ethanol [8]. Likewise, lignocellulosic feedstocks deriving from
starch or cellulose are feasible, production costs and energy agricultural forestry residues, industrial waste, trees, grasses, and
consumption strongly depend on raw materials [5]. The current material in municipal solid waste also require the breakdown of
research on ethanol production is focused on reducing production sugar chains into simple sugars prior to fermentation. Lignocellu-
costs, using alternative feedstocks and increasing energy efficiency losic feedstocks contain cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin which
by means of energy integration of the plant processes. are more difficult to breakdown than starch. In lignocellulosic
Countries such as Brazil have developed technology for using neat feedstocks, both hemicellulose and cellulose components are
ethanol or blended in high proportions with gasoline as a fuel for sugar-based chains that can be fermented into ethanol whereas
spark ignition engines. Engine performance with these fuels has been lignin, a structural component, cannot [9].
Banana fruit and its associated residual biomass are amylaceous
* Corresponding author. Grupo de Investigación Bioprocesos y Flujos Reactivos, and lignocellulosic materials; therefore, they need to be hydrolyzed
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín, Calle 59 A N 63-20, Colombia to be converted into glucose, which is then fermented to produce
Tel.: þ57 4 425 53 91. ethanol [10,11].
E-mail address: [email protected] (H.I. Velásquez-Arredondo).

0360-5442/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2010.03.052
3082 H.I. Velásquez-Arredondo et al. / Energy 35 (2010) 3081e3087

Several researchers have studied the performance of different As can be seen in Table 1, banana pulp has the maximum starch
lignocellulosic feedstocks as raw material for ethanol production. content (53.2% w/w), being the best raw material for acid hydrolysis.
Switchgrass is a perennial warm-season grass native to the U.S.A, Flower stalk shows the highest cellulosic material content (40.9% w/
primarily grown as a protective cover-crop for reducing soil and w), and therefore it is the most suited raw material for enzymatic
nutrients loss in farms. Switchgrass is one of the sources of ligno- hydrolysis. Banana skin presents the higher LHV, and can be
cellulose that is currently being considered for ethanol production considered the best raw material for use as fuel in the utility plant.
in the U.S.A. Preliminary studies conclude that cellulosic-ethanol The process is characterized in terms of mass performance,
obtained from switchgrass could not be a primary source of liquid growing density, energy density, energy ratio and NEV, which is
fuel for substituting petroleum-based fuels due to the high use of defined as the energy required to produce 1 L of ethanol in all
fossil fuels in its production [12]. production steps minus the energy content of ethanol. NEV is useful
The use of hardwood chips as raw material to produce ethanol to determine the energy viability of ethanol production [4,14].
has also been explored. An energy analysis showed that the Net
Energy Value (NEV) for different plant configurations varied from
17.65 to 18.93 (MJ/L) [13].
2. Processes configuration
Another technology studied is the cassava-based fuel ethanol
(KFE). An energy balance showed that KFE has an energy ratio of
Fig. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of the ethanol produc-
around 0.7 MJ/MJ, which means that 0.7 MJ are obtained for each
tion plant with all the stages involved in the process, from banana
MJ used in KFE processing [14]. The objective of this work is to
crop cultivation to ethanol production plant.
apply an energy analysis to evaluate the behavior of a pilot plant
During banana tree cultivation, fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides
with capacity to process 4000 kg per day of banana fruit and its
and fossil fuels are used to convert solar energy, CO2 and water into
residual biomass (flower stalk) to produce ethanol. The future plan
biomass by means of photosynthesis. Table 2 presents the esti-
is to build a production plant for processing 850,000 t/year of
mated requirements of fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides and fossil
banana fruit, which fails to be commercialized due to over-
fuel for banana plant cultivation, banana fruit transport and
production or failure to meet exportation requirements. Currently,
biomass drying [18].
this amount of fruit is processed as organic waste, originating
Banana fruit is composed of 73.4% w/w banana pulp with
environmental problems such as proliferation of plant disease
banana skin as a balance. After farming the banana fruit, the next
pests, bad smell and water contamination [15].
step is biomass pretreatment that involves washing, shattering and
The study takes into account the stages of banana tree cultiva-
crushing as preparation steps for hydrolysis.
tion, feedstock transport, hydrolysis, fermentation, distillation,
Biomass is formed by complex carbohydrates such as starch and
dehydration, utility plant and residue treatment. However, the
cellulose. In order to convert them into fermentable sugar, it is
study cannot be considered a complete Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
necessary to break up the bonds in biomass chains. This is done
because it only takes into account the ethanol production stage and
during hydrolysis using organic enzymes or inorganic acids
not the ethanol end-use.
according to the following reaction [10]:
Four production routes were considered according to the
biomass used as feedstock: acid hydrolysis of amylaceous material Catalyst
(banana pulp and banana fruit) and enzymatic hydrolysis of ðC6 H10 O5 Þn þH2 O


! nðC6 H12 O6 Þ
lignocellulosic material (flower stalk and banana skin). Biomass is not only composed of starch and cellulose; therefore,
Table 1 shows elemental and chemical composition, Higher hydrolysis efficiency is less than 100%. The waste material that is
Heating Value (HHV), Lower Heating Value (LHV) and heat capacity not converted into sugar during hydrolysis, once separated, can be
for the four feedstocks studied. These properties are necessary to used as fuel in a utility plant that supplies the energy required in
carry out the energy analysis. The value of the HHV was analytically the process and reduce fossil fuel consumption. This waste material
verified using the elemental composition and the expression could also be transformed into an organic fertilizer. The sugar syrup
proposed in [16]. LHV was estimated with the equation used in [17]. obtained from hydrolysis is neutralized and prepared for
fermentation.
Yeast or bacteria can be used in the fermentation process. Under
anaerobic conditions, they can modify the metabolic route to
Table 1
convert the syrup into ethanol, through the following reaction [19]:
Chemical and elemental composition, HHV, LHV and heat capacity of banana pulp,
banana fruit, banana skin and flower stalk.
Yeast
C6 H12 O6


! 2C2 H5 OH þ 2CO2
Feedstock Banana pulp Banana fruit Banana skin Flower stalk
Composition (w/w, %) The CO2 produced during fermentation does not contribute to
Humidity  1.1% 74.6 79.0 89.1 93.6 global warming because it originates from biomass and is recycled
Dry material  1.1% 25.4 21.0 10.9 6.4
by the banana tree during cultivation [20].
Cellulose  0.6%a 4.0 13.2 32.1
Hemicellulose  2.2%a 4.4 14.8 8.8 Saccharomyces cerevisiae can be used in the fermentation process,
Starch  1.1%a 53.2 49.2 39.9 1.13 but this microorganism is not able to metabolize the pentose
Lignin  0.6%a 4.2 14.0 19.0 produced during the hydrolysis, although it can process hexose.
Sugars  0.6%a 4.3 3.0
Pentose can be processed by other microorganisms, such as Candida
Elemental composition (w/w %) shehatae or Pichia stipitis. Some genetically modified yeasts have
C 40.5 41.0 41.6 38.9 been developed from S. cerevisiae and Zymomonas mobilis, which can
H  0.6% 6.9 6.6 6.0 3.0
convert pentose and hexose produced during hydrolysis [21].
O  0.6% 49.2 47.4 43.0 35.1
Ash  0.6% 3.4 5.3 9.4 23.0 The maximum reaction efficiency during the fermentation
HHV (kJ/kg)  0.5% 17,182 17,189 17,146 13,531 process is 51%. However, other compounds are produced such as:
LHV (kJ/kg)  0.5% 15,675 15,748 15,836 12,876 aldehydes, heavy alcohols, fatty acids, residual biomass, etc.
Cp (kJ/kg K)  0.9% 1.67 1.75 1.93 3.61 Therefore, it is only possible to reach about 90% of this theoretical
a
Results in dry basis. conversion [22].
 H.I. Velásquez-Arredondo et al. / Energy 35 (2010) 3081e3087 3083

Fig. 1. Schematic block diagram of ethanol production process using starch and cellulose as feedstocks.

Ethanol at 96% w/w is produced in the distillation process. (2) Growing density (rG) [23], defined as the ratio between the
Normally, two distillation columns are used and some byproducts volume of bio-fuel and the land used to grow the feedstock (Eq.
such as aldehydes and heavy alcohols are recovered. After separa- (2)).
tion, about 70% w/w of the bottom fraction of the distillation
columns (water together with other byproducts) is recycled for the Vp
fermentation process. The other 30% w/w of the bottom fraction is
rG ¼ a (2)
mb
processed in a plant where water is treated and solids are separated
and sent to the composting plant where they are mixed with ashes
The a factor is the dry biomass produced by hectare of land (see
and other biomass residues to obtain an organic fertilizer.
Table 2). Growing density must be used as an indicator if the total
In a final purification stage, the product stream is dehydrated using
production of banana fruit is used for ethanol production. When
molecular sieves to produce anhydrous ethanol of 99.8% w/w purity.
only the banana fruit and flower stalk, considered as organic waste,
Table 3 summarizes the main chemical and thermodynamic
is transformed into ethanol, growing density is not and adequate
variables in the different stages of the production process as opti-
indicator.
mized from laboratory-scale experiments.

3. Mass and energy evaluation indicators (3) Energy density (rEn) , as proposed by The Royal Society [24],
evaluates the energy in the bio-fuel, represented in mass (mp)
For assessing process performance, several efficiency criteria and low heating value (LHV) by hectare of growing land (mmp),
have been proposed: as shown in Eq. (3).

(1) Mass Performance (hm), defined as the volume of bio-fuel

mp LHV
produced (Vp) in relation to 1 t of dry biomass (mb), as shown in rEn ¼ a (3)
Eq. (1) [4].
mmp

(4) Using the Life Cycle Assessment Methodology, some indicators in

Vp
hm ¼ 1000 (1) energy basis have been defined, such as the “NEV” [8]. This indi-
mb
cator assesses the energy in the bio-fuel in relation to the energy
used in growing and transportation of feedstocks, production of
Table 2 bio-fuel, including the energy consumption by supplies and the
Estimated fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides and fossil fuel requirements for banana
fruit farming and biomass transport [18].
energy required for waste treatment. NEV it is defined by Eq. (4)

Fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides and fossil Production (kg/ha year (a))

fuel (kg/ha year)  P 
LHV  En
CH4ON2 625 Zn 3 Fruit 12,972 NEV ¼ rp (4)
mp
KCL 850 Mg 18 Stalk 4670
(NH3)2PO4 100 C19H39 NO 10 Flower stalk 372
NH3SO4 75 Gasoline 14 Total 18.014
(5) Another indicator used for evaluating bio-fuels production is
B 2 Diesel oil 120 the”Energy Ratio”, defined in Eq. (5) [6].
3084 H.I. Velásquez-Arredondo et al. / Energy 35 (2010) 3081e3087

Table 3
Chemical and thermodynamic variables in the ethanol production process.

Stage Value Stage Value

Acid hydrolysis De-lignifications
Agent H2SO4 (1.5%) Agent NaOH (90%)
Temperature 90e95  C pH 11e11.1
pH 1.0e1.1 Temperature 25e30  C
Pressure 1 bar Pressure 1 bar
Time 10 h Time 30 min
Efficiency 89e91% Separation 89e91%
Enzymatic hydrolysis Neutralization
Agent Cellulose enzyme Agent NaOH (90%)
Temperate 48e52  C Conditioning
Pressure 1 bar Agent K2HPO4
Time 6h Fermentation
pH 4.0e4.1 Yeast S. Cerevisiae
Efficiency 54e56% pH 4.1
Distillation Temperature 28e33  C
Byproducts Heavy alcohols Efficiency 89e91%
Aldehydes

Product Ethanol 99.8 (w/w)

Energy Output  The flower stalk or the banana skin, as lignocellulosic materials,
Energy Ratio ¼ (5) are submitted to enzymatic hydrolysis,
Energy Input
When the energy ratio is greater than one, the process is ener- During acid hydrolysis, diluted H2SO4 at 1.5% is used for
getically feasible and there can be a reduction in greenhouse gas reducing the pH of the mixture to 1.0. The process is conducted at
emissions [6]. 95  C, for 10 h and under continuous stirring. During the process,
approximately 95% of the starch chains are transformed into
4. Pilot plant description glucose [25].
The syrup obtained must be neutralized until reaching the pH
Fig. 2 shows the pilot plant studied. The feedstocks used were for fermentation; this is achieved by adding NaOH at 90% purity,
banana fruit and flower stalk. They are transported to the produc- therefore Na2SO4 is formed. Then the mixture is filtered in order to
tion facility where they are washed and classified. Four producing separate the residues that are used as fuel and fertilizer.
routes for hydrolysis reaction were studied. In turn, the lignocellulosic material is shattered and crushed
before undergoing the pre-hydrolysis and delignification
 The banana fruit is directly exposed to acid hydrolysis, or the processes; after a half hour of stirring in a 11-pH NaOH solution,
banana fruit is peeled and the pulp is submitted to acid about 90% of lignin is removed. Lignin is a by-product that can be
hydrolysis, taking advantage of its amylaceous character. sold as an agglutinative agent, to the animal food industry, or used

Fig 2. Scheme of pilot plant. (1) Washing of feedstock, (2) peeling of banana fruit, (3) crushing, (4) acid hydrolysis reactor, (5) solids separation, (6) solid storage, (7) syrup storage,
(8) shattering, (9) de-lignifications, (10) enzymatic hydrolysis, (11) syrup conditioning, (12) yeast growing, (13) compressor, (14) yeast propagation, (15) fermentation, (16) decanter,
(17) heat recovering unit, (18) Flubex, (19) stripped tower (20), rectifying tower, (21) condenser, (22) recuperation tower for heavy alcohols, (23) molecular saves, (24) stillage
treatment plant.
 H.I. Velásquez-Arredondo et al. / Energy 35 (2010) 3081e3087 3085

as fuel. The remaining mixture is submitted to enzymatic hydro- Table 4

lysis; enzyme is added to break up the large structures into cellu- Mass balance for ethanol production process (kg/100 kg wet biomass).

lose and hemicellulose. After 6 hours of stirring at 50  C, glucose Amylaceous material Lignocellulosic material
syrup is obtained. The syrup is neutralized and filtered with the Banana pulp Banana fruit Flower stalk Banana skin
solid fraction used as fuel and fertilizer. The syrup can be used as
Input
sweetener or as raw material for ethanol production. In the latter Biomass
case, it is conditioned for fermentation by adding minerals and Dry biomass 26 21.1 6.4 22
proteins such as K2HPO4. H2O 74 78.9 93.6 78
The fermentation process demands air to guarantee about 5% of H2SO4
syrup for yeast production in aerobic conditions. The remaining H2SO4 1.25 3.1 0.16 0.56
syrup is used to produce ethanol. During fermentation, cold water H2O 51.73 6.7 e e
maintains the temperature under 33  C. Once the fermentation has NaOH
finished, the suspension is decanted, the yeast is separated and NaOH 0.51 1.3 0.13 0.45
returned to the yeast-growing tank, and the remaining substance, H2O 0.1 0.3 10.6 70.80
Enzyme e e 0.08 0.27
known as wine, is transferred to the distillation unit. K2HPO4 0.30 0.21 0.02 0.06
The wine is preheated before entering the first distillation Anti-foam 0.07 0.12 0.005 0.018
tower; using the heat rejected on the distillates improves energy
efficiency. About 70% of distillates are re-circulated to increase the Outlet
yield of the fermentation process. Ethanol (99.8%w/w) 7.8 5.6 0.6 1.44
By-products 0.19 0.12 0.04 0.09
In the first distillation tower, ethanol is concentrated up to 45%
w/w, and heavy alcohols are separated and sent to the recuperation Residual biomass
tower for condensation. In the rectifying tower, ethanol is Dry biomass 6.2 6.9 3.8 1.5
Glucose 1.0 0.7 0.1 0.1
concentrated up to 96% w/w, and aldehydes are separated. The Na2SO4 1.8 4.4 0.2 0.1
energy is recovered because the water used as condensate agent is H2O 12.6 8.7 1.1 0.4
added in the hydrolysis in order to dilute the H2SO4, conducting to Lignin e e 1.1 3.8
energy plant integration. Water e e 90.4 111.5
In the final stage, ethanol is dehydrated using molecular sieves Stillage
to produce anhydrous ethanol at 99.8% w/w. Solids 2.9 2.3 0.3 0.8
The distillates have a high biological oxygen demand and must H2O 103.1 77.0 12.7 33.58
CO2 (fermentation) 7.9 5.7 0.6 1.5
be treated to avoid environmental problems; therefore, they are CO2 (non-renewable) 0.26 0.34 1.1 1.4
carried to a distillate-treatment plant where the solids are sepa-
CH4 0.87 0.69 0.11 0.24
rated and the water can be used as an irrigation agent.
The solids are sent to the composting plant where they are
mixed with ashes and other biomass residues, to obtain an organic Inputs are average values for raw materials and (see Tables 1and 2),
fertilizer. outputs are the products.
It can be observed that the highest ethanol yield was obtained
5. Results and discussion when pulp and banana fruit were submitted to acid hydrolysis, due
to the high amylaceous material contained in the feedstock (see
The data in Table 1 are the physical and chemical properties that Table 1) and yield on conversion process (see Table 2). On the other
guarantee the highest conversion efficiency according to a study hand, low ethanol production was obtained when using lignocel-
carried out by The Biochemical Laboratory of the National Univer- lulosic material (flower stalk and banana skin), which are raw
sity of Colombia, Medellín Campus. The results were obtained by materials having low content of lignocellulosic material and enzy-
means of a central rotate composite experimental design and were matic hydrolysis efficiency.
processed using the Stat-graphics Computational software. When banana fruit was hydrolyzed, the mass amounts of H2SO4
Data in Table 2 correspond to laboratory analyses carried out in and NaOH consumed were higher than the ethanol mass produced.
the Bromatologic Laboratory of the National University of These results lead to an economically unviable process, requiring
Colombia, Medellín Campus. The humidity and dry material tests more research to diminish the amount of raw materials used in the
were conducted by thermogravimetry after drying at 105  C (ISO- process.
6496). The cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin content were Water used to dilute H2SO4 in acid hydrolysis and NaOH in the
analyzed according to the methods AOAC 973.18, and AOAC 2002.4. enzymatic hydrolysis process allows obtaining the adequate
Starch was obtained from a polarimetry test, sugar following the consistency for agitation and the ideal relation between water and
ICONTEC NTC 542 standard, the calorific value following the ASTM glucose for the fermentation process (150 g/L), in such a way that
standard D3286-96 and the chemical composition by the ASTM the yeast can promote the conversion into ethanol. This diluting
standard D2650-99. water increases the consumption of supplies and energy, besides
The mass and energy balances were carried out considering requiring equipment of larger size and increasing distillate
each process as an independent system and applying mass and production.
energy conservation principles in steady state [26]. The balances Table 5 shows the energy consumed in form of heat and work in
were solved using the software EES (Engineering Equation Solver) hydrolysis, fermentation and distillation.
[27] and its substance property libraries for steam, ethanol and The work and heat consumed in the material preparation,
CO2. For other substances, such as NaOH and H2SO4, the property feedstock crushing and shattering (see Fig. 1) were taken into
values were taken from different references and chemical process account for the acid hydrolysis. In the enzymatic hydrolysis, the
tables. energy consumed in the delignification process was considered.
Table 4 presents the mass balance for the four production Heat was not consumed in fermentation because this process was
routes, using 100 kg of humid biomass as a basis for the calcula- maintained at a temperature lower than 33  C. The highest
tions. The processes plant was considered as the control volume. consumption of steam corresponded to the distillation process.
3086 H.I. Velásquez-Arredondo et al. / Energy 35 (2010) 3081e3087

Table 5 The mass performance of 388.7 L/t for banana pulp and 346.5 L/t
Energy consumed in the ethanol production process (kJ/kg ethanol). for banana fruit obtained when amylaceous material was used, are
Systems Energy Amylaceous Lignocellulosic comparable with the results obtained by other researchers for corn,
consumed material material from 388 to 403 L/t [23]. The values obtained for lignocellulosic
Banana Banana Flower Banana material (123.5 L/t for flower stalk and 86.1 L/t for banana skin)
pulp fruit stalk skin were lower than those reported in other studies (289e304 L/t) [4].
Hydrolysis W 1028 1086 2904 5416 The NEV and Energy ratio took into account the energy
Q 4597 4521 2244 3593 consumed in cropping and feedstock transport, evaluated as 12% of
Fermentation W 2396 2318 2576 3582
the total energy consumed in the process plant [29]. The energy
Distillation W 11 11 12 17
Q 6117 6096 6228 6743
consumed in the distillate-treatment plant, evaluated as 1.73 kJ/kg
Total W 3435 3415 5492 7369 stillage, was also considered. This value was taken from a plant that
Q 10714 10616 8472 9243 uses the activate mud technology for separating the solids from the
ETotal 14149 14031 13964 16613 stillage (Manantial Residual Treatment Plant, located in Medellín,
Colombia).
The high amount of work required by enzymatic hydrolysis The values obtained for amylaceous material (9.86 MJ/L for
when lignocellulosic material (flower stalk and banana skin) was banana pulp and 9.94 for banana fruit) are comparable with those
processed came from the mechanical work consumed in material obtained by several researches using corn as feedstock (5.85 MJ/L
pretreatment (crushing, shattering and delignification) and the [8] and 5.57e6.99 MJ/L [4]).
work consumed in stirrers due to the long reaction time (10 h), that The values obtained in this work for lignocellulosic material
is necessary for destroying cellulose chains. This means that (8.79 MJ/L for flower stalk and 5.24 for banana skin) can be
research has to be continued aiming to reduce the reaction time in compared with the values obtained for cellulose material from 16.6
enzymatic hydrolysis. to 20.8 MJ/L [4], 5.57e6.99 MJ/L [4] and 17.65e18.93 L/t [13]. Using
The high amount of heat required in acid hydrolysis when the hardwood chips as raw material by different configuration plants
amylaceous material (pulp and banana fruit) was processed was the “NEV” has been reported to be between 17.65 and 18.93 MJ/L
due to the temperature required to break up the chain of amyla- [13]. In the case of sugar cane in India a value of 11.37 has been
ceous material (100  C). reported MJ/L [14].
The utility plant was designed as a cogeneration plant, taking Values for “Energy density” can be found in the range from 70 GJ/
into account the thermodynamic parameters of utility plants using ha to 75 GJ/ha when corn is used as feedstock [24]. These values can
bagasse as fuel. Steam was produced in boilers at 28 bar and 380  C be compared with the results obtained in this work for amylaceous
and was used as a back-pressure turbine at 2.6 bar with isentropic material. It is important to point out that the banana fruit used in this
efficiency of 70.0%. [28]. For the amylaceous material used to work is considered waste material; therefore, this indicator must not
produce ethanol, a second boiler was included to process steam at be taken into account for banana pulp and banana fruit.
10 bar due to the quantity of the heat consumed (see Table 5). For The low values of the indicators obtained for cellulosic material
lignocellulosic material, the work required was higher than the allow concluding that this process is not attractive for ethanol
heat, and so a condenser was required in the utility plant. production.
The total steam consumption was evaluated in 4.95 kg steam/kg According to the “Energy Ratio”, the four production routes can
ethanol for banana pulp, 4.91 kg steam/kg ethanol for banana, be considered as renewable because the values obtained for this
3.9 kg steam/kg ethanol for flower stalk and 4.3 kg steam/kg indicator were greater than unity [6]. The values obtained for
ethanol for banana skin. amylaceous material (1.9 MJ/MJ for banana pulp and banana fruit)
From the mass and energy balances, the mass and energy are comparable with those obtained for corn (between 0 and
indicators described in Eqs. (1)e(5), were calculated to evaluate the 1.7 MJ/MJ), lignocellulosic material (1.6 MJ/MJ for flower stalk and
process. These indicators are shown in Table 6. 1.3 for banana skin), and wood (between 0.2 and 2.1 MJ/MJ). For
The mass performance of 388.7 L/t obtained with banana pulp ethanol obtained from sugar cane, the value is between 8.1 and 10.1
was due to the higher yield in the acid hydrolysis treatment. The [6]. Using cassava-based fuel ethanol (KFE), a product from south-
highest growing density (rG) and energy density (rEn) were obtained west China, an energy ratio of around 1.4 was estimated [14].
with banana fruit. This result was due to the better a factor (see Table
2) of 12,972 kg of dry biomass produced by ha year. 6. Conclusions
On the other hand, when flower stalk was used, the low a factor
of 372 kg of dry biomass/ha-year, the low enzymatic hydrolysis The banana fruit and its organic residues are feedstocks that can
yield (55%; see Table 3) and low cellulose content (49.1%, see Table be used to produce ethanol through hydrolysis, fermentation and
1), led to unsatisfactory results. distillation. Through these processes, agricultural waste can be
used to produce ethanol and reduce environmental concerns.
Table 6 From the four productions routes analyzed, two for amylaceous
Performance indicators. material submitted to acid hydrolysis (banana pulp and banana
Indicator Units Amylaceous material Lignocellulosic fruit) and two using lignocellulosic material submitted to enzymatic
material hydrolysis (flower stalk and banana skin), the best performance was
Banana Banana Flower Banana for the amylaceous materials that showed a “Mass performance”
pulp fruit stalk skin from 346.5 to 388.7 L/t, a “NEV” between 9.86 and 9.94 MJ/L and an
hm L/tdry 388.7 346.5 123.5 86.1 “Energy Ratio” of 1.9 MJ/MJ, which are values comparable when
biomass other amylaceous materials such as corn are used.
rG L/ha 3696.0 4495 46.0 298.1 Lignocellulosic materials showed lower performance indexes:
rEn MJ/ha 77850 94670 963.3 627.9
NEV MJ/Lethanol 9.86 9.94 8.79 5.24
a “Mass performance” from 86.1 to 123.5 L/t, a “NEV” between 5.24
and 8.79 MJ/L and an “Energy Ratio” between 1.3 and 1.6 MJ/MJ,
Energy MJ/MJ 1.9 1.9 1.6 1.3
which are, however, comparable with indexes for lignocellulosic
ratio
material.
 H.I. Velásquez-Arredondo et al. / Energy 35 (2010) 3081e3087 3087

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