Advanced Technologies in the Sugarcane Agroindustry

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Chapter 5

• Advanced Technologies in the Sugarcane
  Agroindustry

Professor Marcos Fava Neves Antony Ammar
(a.ammar_at_hotmail.fr) Gabriel Rausch
(rauschea_at_gmail.com) Guilherme Abbud
(g.abbud_at_gmail.com)
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Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic residues

• Bioethanol has been produced through hydrolysis
  and fermentation of lignocellulosic materials
  since the end of 19th century.
• But it is only in the last 20 years that this
  technology has been proposed to serve the fuels
  market.

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Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic residues

• In the next 5 or 10 years, with this technology
  totally developed, it would be possible to
  produce bioethanol in lands where sugarcane isnt
  suitable.
• Nowadays, the researches are producing models in
  a short scale and trying to adapt it to the
  market.

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Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic residues

• Lignocellulosic
• Polysaccharides
• Cellulose (40-60) (Easier fermentation (6 C)
  S. cerevisiae harder hydrolysis)
• Hemicellulose (20-40) (Harder fermentation (5
  C) easier hisdrolisys)
• Lignin (10-25)

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Lingnin

• Is not related to simple sugar molecules
  (fermentation doesnt work on it).
• It has energy stored permit self-sufficiency in
  eletric power ? more efficiency (technology) ?
  energy for sale.
• Less external fossil energy resources.

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Lignocellulosic materials How does it work?
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Step by step

• First of all, the feedstock is cleaned and
  breaked ? Reason to make it more susceptible to
  subsequent treatments.
• Next Pre-treatment
• Remove the lignin
• Hydrolysis of hemicellulose (several methods can
  be used physical, chemical and combined).

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Step by step

• Hydrolysis of cellulose the cellulose is
  converted into glucose, according to the
  following reaction

n C6H10O5 n H2O ? C6H12O6
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Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic residues

• Hydrolysis uses complex and multiphase
  technologies based on acid or enzymatic routes,
  or both.
• Acid hydrolysis
• Concentrated
• Diluted
• Enzymatic hydrolysis

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Comparison of different options for cellulose
hydrolysis
Source Sugarcane-Based Bioethanol
All these process are still in early stages of
development, so they can be strongly changed.
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Comparison of different options for cellulose
hydrolysis

• Enzymatic hydrolysis mild conditions
• Great saccharification
• Causes simultaneous saccharification and
  fermentation
• Lower maintenance costs (less/zero corrosion)
• Less environmental problems (no residues)

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Schematic of the process of ethanol production by
hydrolysis of biomass
Source Sugarcane-Based Bioethanol
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Problem 5-Carbon-Sugars

• Cannot be fermented by wild lines of S.
  cerevisiae
• What usually happens?
• exclude this fraction of the sugars
• carry out the fermentation in two steps (reducing
  the profits)
• Future
• genetic engineering micro-organisms capable of
  fermenting both sugars with high yields

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Challenges

• Reduce the price of biomass (which could be 40
  of ethanol cost in norther countries)
• Making ethanol generated by hydrolysis of
  lignocellulosic materials economically viable

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Gasification for production of fuels and
electricity
Air Heat Pressure

• Since 1940
• Process
• - Biomass CO , H2 , CO2 , Water Steam
  , volatile HCs, ash
• Uses become heterogeneous materials (Biomass)
  in homogeneous materials (Gases)
• Fossil industrys experience can be used in the
  process, emphasizing that this is much more
  complex
• Scale production influences the economy of the
  production process

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Gasification for production of fuels and
electricity

• This method appears like a good option for
  production of liquid fuels and bioelectricity,
  both demand pushed by a new era of global
  responsability Including reduce greenhouse
  gases emition and subistitute consumption of
  petroleum-derived products
• There is a lack of develpment and technology to
  achieve this goal.
• Political barriers are still a paradgim to be
  crossed

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Gasification of Biomass integrated with combined
cycles (BIG/GT-CC technology)

• The Biomass Integrated Gasification/Gas Turbine
  Combined Cycle system operates in a very high
  temperature (1200) double of the convencional
  systems, reducing thermodynamic losses and
  increasing efficiency.

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Gasification of Biomass integrated with combined
cycles (BIG/GT-CC technology)
PRE-TREATMENT
Here, there are few types of Gasifier Project,
i.e. Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) that
operates at atmosphere temperature and has lower
efficiency than the Pressurized CFB.
Source Sugar-cane Based Bioethanol
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Gasification of Biomass integrated with combined
cycles (BIG/GT-CC technology)
Types of Gasification technology
Source Sugar-cane Based Bioethanol

• Even with the great effort, there was just one
  eletric power plant operated for a significant
  time in Värnamo, Sweden.

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Gasification of Biomass integrated with combined
cycles (BIG/GT-CC technology)

• This is a great opportunity for sugar-cane
  industry sector due the relative low cost of the
  Biomass in add, its storage is too expensive.

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Synthesis Fuels

• Various biofuels may be obtained out of
  synthesis gas (syngas) produced from biomass.

Source Sugar-cane Based Bioethanol
The system has to be isolated from the atmosphere
to avoid final products joyining Nitrogen
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Gasification of Biomass integrated with combined
cycles (BIG/GT-CC technology)

• The reactors

Conversion Rate
fixed bed (gas phase)
fluidized bed (gas phase)
mud bed (liquid phase)
Investmentes
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Synthesis Fuels

• Comparison of yields and costs for fuel
  production from synthesis gas

Source Sugar-cane Based Bioethanol
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Synthesis Fuels

• Other types of energy originated from SC
• Butanol (C4H8O) industrial solvent, gasoline
  additive
• Biodiesel from biochemical processes that uses
  sugars its economic and technical feasibility,
  costs and yields are still unknown

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Using bioethanol as a petrochemical or
alcohol-chemical input

• Plastic materials (artificial polymers)? very
  important nowadays
• Replace other materials wood and glass
• Create new products packing and coating
• Petrochemical industry ? natural gas and
  petroleum-naphtha ? plastics.

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Using bioethanol as a petrochemical or
alcohol-chemical input

• This production processes involves 3 categories
• A) First generation industries ? provides the
  basics products? as ethene, propene and
  buthadiene.
• B) Second generation industries ? transforms the
  basic products into final petrochemical products
  ? like polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and
  polyvinyl chloride (PVC), for example.
• C)Third generation industries in which final
  products are chemically modified or built in
  final consumer products ? as films, containers
  and objects.

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Using bioethanol as a petrochemical or
alcohol-chemical input

• Bioethanol homogeneous and reactive substance
• Substrate in various petrochemical processes ?
  alcohol-chemical
• Transformation of the ethanol
• Dehydration ? ethene ? second generation
  products
• It can be said that the bioethanol is an input
  for a wide range of traditional petrochemical
  products, by its conversion into first and second
  generation processes.

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Using bioethanol as a petrochemical or
alcohol-chemical input

• Market of bioethanol as alcohol-chemical is
  significant
• Bioethanol demand by the Brazilian industries ? 7
  milion cubic meters
• One third of production observed in the 2006/07
  harvest.
• Brazil 3 of world production
• Great potential for expanding the use of
  bioethanol from sugarcane as an input on a global
  scale
• Basic technologies are known ? relative price of
  ethanol compared with other inputs.

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First steps of ethanol-chemical industry in
Brazil

• 80s Oxiteno and Coperbo use of ethanol to
  replace fossil inputs in the Brazilian
  petrochemical industry
• 1985 unfavorable prices ? routes were
  discontinued
• Nowadays high price of fossil inputs ?it shows
  renewed interest

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Biodegradable plastics production

• 2004 production of plastics was 230 million tons
• 2010 expected 300 million tons
  (Dröscher, 2006).
• Great environmental concern
• Material is quickly discarded increase in
  the amount
• Slow decay rates
  of waste
• After use less than 10 are recycled and
  majority is destined for landfills
  (Waste-online, 2008)
• It takes 100 to 500 years for nature to degrade
  completely

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Biodegradable plastics production

• Solve this problem recycling use of degradable
  plastics
• Biodegradable plastics
• Polymers
• Completely degrated by microbial action in a
  short time
• Important advantage produced from renewed
  sources
• (starch, sugars and fatty acids)
• Ex PLA polylactic acid ? composed of lactic
  acid monomers obtained by microbial fermentation.
• Ex 2 PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate) ? which is
  biosynthesized as a storage energy of
  microrganisms.

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Biodegradable plastics production

• 1920 first observation of bioplastics
• 1970 Oil crisis ? stimulated the search for
  alternative sources of materials and energy
• Today structures and routes and applications of
  many bioplastics are well understood
• But, there are some limitations for large-scale
  production
• special growth conditions required (by
  micro-organisms) for the synthesis of these
  compounds,
• difficulty to synthesize them by using low cost
  precursors
• high costs of recovery

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Biodegradable plastics production

• Even using micro-organisms able to ferment low
  costs source of carbon (molasses, sucrose,
  vegetable oil and methane), these processes are
  still not competitive with conventional
  generation of synthetic plastics (Luengo et al.,
  2003).
• Besides economic concerns
• Positive balance in the life cicle of biopolymers
  ? used as substitutes for petrochemical
  materials.
• Energy gains are small use of fossil fuels.
• Derived from sugarcane take advantage use of
  bagasse as na energy input in the process.

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• Comparison of energy consumption and GEE
  (Greenhouse gases)
• Emissions in the production
• of various plastics.
• 5 plastics of fossil orign
• low density polyethylene (LDPE),
• high density polyethylene (HDPE),
• polypropylene (PP),
• polystyrene (PS),
• polyethylene therephthalate (b-PET)
• 2 co-polymeric polyesters produced with biomass
  
• P(3HA), based on soybean oil,
• P (3HB), based on glucose

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Biodegradable plastics production

• Brazil, Serrana (SP) PHB industrial S.A.
• Is located attached to Usina da Pedra
• Production of PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate) operating
  on a pilot scale with a capacity of 60 tons per
  year.
• Fermentation is promoted by micro-organisms
  cultivated in a medium (sugarcane sugar and
  inorganic nutrients) (Nonato
  et al., 2001).
• 10 of all energy consumed in the life cycle of
  PHB comes from non-renewable sources of energy
• Bagasse provides all the energy necessary in the
  process (Seabra and Macedo,
  2006).

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Biorefinery multiple products and integral use
of raw materials

• Definition of a biorefinery
• An integrated complex capable of producing
  products fuels, chemicals , and power- using
  diferent types of biomass in a model that would
  permit reaching greater efficiencies
  thermodynamic, economic, and environmental terms.
  (Ondrey 2006)
• Can we consider sugar cane industry as a
  biorefinery?
• Both government and large firms invested in sugar
  cane industry to bring a global solution in long
  term

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Biorefinery multiple products and integral use
of raw materials
Definition of a biorefinery
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Biorefinery multiple products and integral use
of raw materials

• A sustainable breakthrough for the energetical
  global challenge?
• Analysts estimated that this industry at its
  maturity will be 70 of global energy
  efficiency and it will be competitive in economic
  terms
• One thing to keep in mind if the technology is
  advanced enough, we can make a biorefinery with
  any source of biomass

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