Compatibility of sustainability and economic efficiency of bioethanol production with a special focus on small ethanol plants

01.04.2006 - 31.12.2007
Research funding project
The sustainable development of bioethanol as a renewable source of energy requires embedding of the technology itself into an ecological as well as economical framework. The objectives of this project are to scientifically investigate (a) the technological process of bioethanol production, in particular in small and micro plants with capacities between 1.000 and 10.000 t/y ethanol, and (b) explore the complex relationship between technology and environment. Plants with low capacities show great promise for sustainability, since their integration into existing regional structures appears to be environmentally as well as economically compatible. Preliminary studies indicated that both economic and energy efficiency of small-sized plants are still to be optimized. Therefore, the main emphasis of this study lies in lowering the specific capital costs and improving the heat integration of individual process-components. For covering the energy self-supply of bioethanol plants without the use of conventional fossil fuels, residual substances of the process are exploited: The residues of distillation and/or feedstock harvest will be utilised to produce biogas by fermentation; the incineration of straw should supply additional process heat. Thereby remaining biogas fermentation residues and ash, respectively, could be reintegrated into the regional ecological cycle as a fertiliser. The impact of this fertiliser on soil composition or crop yield will be examined more in depth in cooperation with the Division of Agricultural Engineering / BOKU Wien. Based on computer simulation data (IPSEpro) that incorporate bioethanol plants with increasing capacities and different combinations of energy self-supply by renewable materials, the most valuable process combination ¿ in terms of energy efficiency and cost reduction ¿ will be determined. Eventually, the Institute for Resource Efficient and Sustainable Systems / TU Graz will calculate the Sustainability Process Index (SPI) from all of the collected data. The SPI allows quantifying the ecological impact of bioethanol production in variably sized plants under diverse procedure variants. This should clarify whether sustainability in general is compatible with economic efficiency, or under which conditions particularly small-sized bioethanol plants are actually more sustainable than larger ones. A comparance with other biofuels (biodiesel) will complete the survey.

People

Project leader

Project personnel

Institute

Grant funds

  • FFG - Österr. Forschungsförderungs- gesellschaft mbH (National) Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)

Research focus

  • Sustainable Production and Technologies: 50%
  • Modeling and Simulation: 50%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
Bioethanolbioethanol
Biogasbiogas
Nachhaltigkeitsustainability
Energieeffizienzenergy efficiency

External partner

  • Universität für Bodenkultur Wien Department für Nachhaltige Agrarsysteme
  • Technische Universität Graz Institut für Ressourcenschonende und Nachhaltige Systeme

Publications