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The ecological foot print of integrated ethanol production from sugar

Bioethanol is an important part of possible solutions for the replacement of fossil fuels in the near future. It could be added in the gasolines directly or as the ETBE. In Europe, the probably most convenient renewable raw materials for the bio ethanol production are grains and sugar beet. For this purpose there is a tendency to use predominantly corn and a little be less the wheat. Because of the surplus of sugar production in EU, it is an existing possibility for sugar factories to redirect the sugar beet in the bioethanol instead in the sugar production, respectively. According to available technical equipment and state of the technology today, sugar factories can use some inter-stage products (i.e. sugar juice ≈ 16 % sugar or concentrated sugar syrup 65-67 % sugar) as well as waste materials (molasses > 50 % sugar for the fermentative production of bioethanol. From energetic point of view, the main points of energy consumption in such productions are: sugar extraction from sugar beet chips, sugar juice concentration by evaporation (syrup production), ethanol distillation as well as distillers mash concentration and drying. The ecological foot print of bioethanol production from sugar beet could be significantly improved by introduction of new processes in fermentation techniques, product recovery and by-products processing respectively. Among other possibilities, the introducing of sugar beet chips as the main raw material and simultaneous sugar extraction, fermentation and product recovery process (SSEFPR), combined with biogas production from fermentation residues, could be applied. A using of biogas for the process heat generation or for the combined electricity and steam production is the further advantage in the ecological improvement of sustainability of bioethanol production.

sugar juice; sugar beet chips; integrated bioethanol production; ecological foot print

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