Decarbonizing ethanol production via gas fermentation: Impact of the CO/H2/CO2 mix source on greenhouse gas emissions and production costs

This study explores key success factors for ethanol production via fermentation of gas streams, by assessing the effects of eight process variables driving the fermentation performance on the production costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Three fermentation feedstocks are assessed: off-gases from the steel industry, lignocellulosic biomass-derived syngas and a mixture of H-2 and CO2. The analysis is done through a sequence of (i) sensitivity analyses based on stochastic simulations and (ii) multi-objective optimizations. In economic terms, the use of steel off-gas leads to the best performance and the highest robustness to low mass transfer coefficients, low microbial tolerance to ethanol, acetic-acid co-production and to dilution of the gas feed with CO2, due to the relatively high temperature at which the gas feedstock is available. The ethanol produced from the three feedstocks lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil-based gasoline and compete with first and second generation ethanol. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

This study explores the key success factors for ethanol production from gas streams and compares the effects of different process variables on production costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The use of steel off-gas shows the best performance and highest robustness, and the ethanol produced from the three feedstocks has lower greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline.