F. Almomani
Qatar University,
Qatar
Keywords: algal biomass, bioethanol, optimization
Summary:
Bioethanol is a liquid biofuel that is sustainable and environmentally friendly [19]. However, the production and commercialization of bioethanol is primarily focused on first-generation food crops such as sugarcane, maize and beet, which can lead to the food versus fuel dispute [8]. There is a significant interest in the use of bioethanol as a potential alternative to fuel. However, the bottlenecks in the available technologies of converting non-edible feedstock’s such as lignocellulosic material limit supply of bioethanol to satisfy the country's demands. It si projected that the market size of bioethanol will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.0% from USD 33.7 billion in 2020 to USD 64.8 billion by 2025, 2020 to 2025. Bioethanol is a liquid biofuel that is sustainable and environmentally friendly [19]. However, the production and commercialization of bioethanol is primarily focused on first-generation food crops such as sugarcane, maize and beet, which can lead to the food versus fuel dispute [8]. There is a significant interest in the use of bioethanol as a potential alternative to fuel. However, the bottlenecks in the available technologies of converting non-edible feedstock’s such as lignocellulosic material limit supply of bioethanol to satisfy the country's demands. It si projected that the market size of bioethanol will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.0% from USD 33.7 billion in 2020 to USD 64.8 billion by 2025, 2020 to 2025. The previous literature review revealed that there is a gap in the existing knowledge on effective pretreatment methods for maximum sugar extraction from DAB and its entirety utilization as a renewable resource for the production of biopolymer of bioethanol, the improvement of the sugar liberation process under low chemical use and short treatment process is crucial. There is a high opportunity to propose a new algal pretreatment process that can maximize the bioethanol and biopolymer production under low fixed capital and operating cost. Besides, there is a gap in the literature regarding the impact of using nanoparticle combined with advanced oxidation concept on the bioethanol and biopolymer process performance and feasibility. Moreover, the techno-economic aspect of any new treatment process in terms of performance and cost requires further investigation. Accordingly, the present study aims at evaluating the impact of three pretreatment processes on the production of bio-ethanol and biopolymer and the consequential impact on the sugar utilization from algal cells. The performance of the new pretreatment to produce bioethanol and biopolymer as well as the economic feasibility was conducted and presented