Converting Waste Agricultural Biomass into a Resource - UNEP

improvements would provide cost savings of 16 cents per gallon of ethanol by
2015. The countercurrent hydrolysis approach was chosen for the reference
case technology. The countercurrent process improves on the dilute acid
process, providing potential production cost savings of 30 cents per gallon of
ethanol by 2015. The most advanced conversion process, with the greatest
potential for cost reduction, is the enzymatic hydrolysis process. This process
was assumed for the high technology case, with production cost savings of 60
cents per gallon of ethanol by 2015. Figure 8 compares ethanol price
projections in the three technology cases with motor gasoline prices in the
reference, low, and high world oil price cases.
Examples of Real Life Applications
Masada Resource Group is planning to locate a municipal solid waste (MSW)
to ethanol plant in New York using the concentrated acid hydrolysis process,
which may be better suited than enzymes to heterogeneous cellulose sources
(such as MSW). Arkenol is working to establish a commercial facility in
Sacramento, California, to convert rice straw to ethanol, also using the
concentrated acid hydrolysis process.
Sources:
1. http://www.ethanol-gec.org/information/briefing/6.pdf
366