Process design and economic analysis of a hypothetical bioethanol production plant using carob pod as feedstock.

S Sánchez-Segado, L J Lozano, A P de Los Ríos, F J Hernández-Fernández, C Godínez, D Juan

Index: Bioresour. Technol. 104 , 324-8, (2012)

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Abstract

A process for the production of ethanol from carob (Ceratonia siliqua) pods was designed and an economic analysis was carried out for a hypothetical plant. The plant was assumed to perform an aqueous extraction of sugars from the pods followed by fermentation and distillation to produce ethanol. The total fixed capital investment for a base case process with a capacity to transform 68,000 t/year carob pod was calculated as 39.61 millon euros (€) with a minimum bioethanol production cost of 0.51 €/L and an internal rate of return of 7%. The plant was found to be profitable at carob pod prices lower than 0.188 €/kg. An increase in the transformation capacity of the plant from 33,880 to 135,450 t/year was calculated to result in an increase in the internal rate of return from 5.50% to 13.61%. The obtained results show that carob pod is a promising alternative source for bioethanol production.Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.