Integrated strategy for coproducing bioethanol and adipic acid from lignocellulosic biomass

Numerous processes that produce only fuel from lignocellulosic biomass have the drawback that they are not economic. To overcome this, a biorefinery process is developed to coproduce ethanol as a renewable fuel and adipic acid as a value-added product. This strategy incorporates biomass fractionation, enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to ethanol, and catalytic conversion of hemicellulose to adipic acid. The developed experimental-based process model is used to evaluate the economic feasibility and environmental impact of the integrated coproduction strategy. The results show that the coproduction biorefinery has a lower minimum selling price for ethanol ($2.84/gallon of gasoline equivalent) and less environmental impact (2.44 kg CO2 eq. for climate change and 0.32 kg oil eq. for fossil depletion) than current biofuel production processes. This suggests that biorefinery can be improved economically and environmentally with the coproduction of value-added commodities.