Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

The world is starting to witness a significant shift in the production of chemicals using new "biorefinery"technologies. Indeed, biorefinery will contribute to the integration of food into industrial processing. Forinstance, cereals can be used to produce food, whereas crop residues, fibrous byproducts, and other cellulosicmaterials can serve for industrial power, biochemicals, and fuels. It is only through these integrated processingplants that the biobased industrial sector will expand without increasing the cost of food either divertingagricultural production from its primary goal. One such product is bioethanol, which is a renewable andsustainable energy source that can significantly reduce pollution. We propose to investigate various ways ofsignificantly reducing the production cost of bioethanol produced mainly from cellulosic materials.A major portion of the cost to produce bioethanol is due to the high energy requirement for separating ethanolfrom the fermentation broth. This problem is compounded by the fact that the final ethanol concentration iscommonly very low. In this research project, it is proposed to investigate various fermentation and hybridseparation (adsorption, membrane, dephlegmator) strategies in order to address the difficulties of low ethanolconcentrations. State-of-the-art process synthesis, integration, and optimization will be used to devise the bestpossible ethanol production flow sheets. Numerous scenarios will be assessed completely from both atechnological and economic point of view.The four applicants have a wide range of expertise necessary to complete this project: fermentation, adsorptionand membrane separations, and optimization. A total of four graduate students and three undergraduatestudents will take part in this project and will be exposed to the various facets of an ethanol production plant.