The Minimum Water Consumption of Ethanol Production via Biomass Fermentation

摘要

The water consumption of fermentation-based bio-ethanol production has recently begun to attract public attention.We calculate a minimum consumption of 2.85 gal water/gal of ethanol produced assuming zero liquid discharge andotherwise current industrial practice data. Including cooling tower blowdown and drift this value may increase to on theorder of 4 gal water/gal of ethanol produced. Reduction of the thermal energy input to the process is vital to reduce this irretrievablewater consumption.