Life Cycle Analysis on the Combined Separation and Dehydration Steps of Bio-Ethanol Production

Bio-ethanol production is a rapidly growing market due to the possible uses of the anhydrous product in energy generation. This production however, is weighed down by energetic demands and environmental effects.

In this paper, a life cycle analysis is performed on the distillation and dehydration steps of a bio-ethanol production plant complementing a sugar mill. The two parts of the process are first studied and optimized independently, heat integration is performed on both steps, the two are then combined and a life cycle analysis is performed on the resulting process.