Comparative techno-economic analysis of steam explosion, dilute sulfuric acid, ammonia fiber explosion and biological pretreatments of corn stover.

Pretreatment is required to destroy recalcitrant structure of lignocelluloses and then transform into fermentable sugars. This study assessed techno-economics of steam explosion, dilute sulfuric acid, ammonia fiber explosion and biological pretreatments, and identified bottlenecks and operational targets for process improvement. Techno-economic models of these pretreatment processes for a cellulosic biorefinery of 113.5 million liters butanol per year excluding fermentation and wastewater treatment sections were developed using a modelling software-SuperPro Designer. Experimental data of the selected pretreatment processes based on corn stover were gathered from recent publications, and used for this analysis. Estimated sugar production costs ($/kg) via steam explosion, dilute sulfuric acid, ammonia fiber explosion and biological methods were 0.43, 0.42, 0.65 and 1.41, respectively. The results suggest steam explosion and sulfuric acid pretreatment methods might be good alternatives at present state of technology and other pretreatment methods require research and development efforts to be competitive with these pretreatment methods.