Tropical countries such as Brazil and Colombia have the possibility of using their lands for growing vegetable products to produce biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol. The objective of this work is to apply exergy analysis to evaluate the renewability of anhydrous ethanol production from surplus banana fruit production and its residual biomass. The study takes into account all production stages: growing, feedstock transport, hydrolysis, fermentation, distillation, and dehydration. It also considers the cogeneration plant and residues treatment. Four production routes were analyzed according to the biomass used as feedstock: banana pulp, banana fruit, hanging cluster or banana skin. Based on the exergy concept, performance indicators are proposed and calculated. In order to quantify the renewability of the ethanol production processes, a new indicator called “Renewability Performance Indicator” is defined and applied to the four ethanol production routes studied. The results show that when amilaceous material is used, better results than lignocellulosic material are obtained and four production processes studied must be classified as non-renewable.
exergy analysis renewability analysis ethanol production banana fruit hydrolysis
Birincil Dil | İngilizce |
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Bölüm | Regular Original Research Article |
Yazarlar | |
Yayımlanma Tarihi | 1 Eylül 2009 |
Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2009 Cilt: 12 Sayı: 3 |