title: Economic feasibility of ethanol production from biomass and waste resources via catalytic reaction.
abstract: An economic evaluation of ethanol (EtOH) production from a thermo-chemical process derived from biomass/waste feedstocks was conducted. The influence of feed amounts, catalytic conversions, and EtOH selling prices was examined as these are the major variables for the economic evaluation of biomass/wastes conversion to EtOH. Among the three feedstock systems of biomass, high-moisture municipal solid waste (MSW), and plastic waste, the plastic waste has far better economic feasibility, with a payback period of 2-5 years at maximum CO conversion (40%) from syngas to ethanol, due to its higher heating value in comparison with biomass and high-moisture MSW. The heating value of the feedstock is a key factor in determining the overall economic efficiency in a thermo-chemical EtOH production system. Furthermore, enhancement of the CO conversion (related to catalytic activity) from syngas to EtOH using a low cost catalyst is necessary to retain economic efficiency because the CO conversion and cost consideration of catalyst are crucial factors to reduce the payback period.
authors.affiliation: Distributed Power Generation and Energy Storage Group, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejeon, South Korea. ys93@kier.re.kr
authors.forename: Sun-Hwa
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yeon
authors.forename: Dae-Hyun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Nam-Sun
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Nho
authors.forename: Kyoung-Hee
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Chang-Soo
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D002384:Catalysis; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005240:Feasibility Studies
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol