Technoeconomic assessment of ethanol production via thermochemical conversion of biomass by entrained flow gasification

The production of ethanol via entrained flow gasification of biomass and subsequent catalytic synthesis is economically assessed by considering current and future scenarios. In the current scenarios, the process plants proposed only make use of available technologies and state-of-the-art mixed alcohol catalysts (Rh–Mn/SiO2 and KCoMoS2 catalysts). In the future scenarios, the effects of improvements in MoS2 catalyst performance and the availability of pressurized solid biomass feeding systems are assessed. A plant size of 2140 dry tonnes/day of wood chip (500 MWth) is considered with the criteria of being energy self-sufficient. The economic results are discussed and also compared with state-of-the-art production of biochemical lignocellulosic ethanol.