Tobin Tyler, Gustafson Rick, Bura Renata, Gough Heidi L
The School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, 4000 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195-2100 USA.
Biotechnol Biofuels. 2020 Feb 3;13:24. doi: 10.1186/s13068-020-1657-7. eCollection 2020.
Production and use of bio-based products offer advantages over conventional petrochemicals, yet the relatively high cost of production has restricted their mainstream adoption. Optimization of wastewater treatment processes could reduce capital expenditures, lowering the barrier to market entry for lignocellulosic biorefineries. This paper characterizes wastewater associated with lignocellulosic ethanol production and evaluates potential wastewater treatment operations.
It is found that organic material is intrinsic to bioconversion wastewater, representing up to 260 kg of biological oxygen demand per tonne of feedstock processed. Inorganics in the wastewater largely originate from additions during pretreatment and pH adjustments, which increase the inorganic loading by 44 kg per tonne of feedstock processed. Adjusting the ethanol production process to decrease addition of inorganic material could reduce the demands and therefore cost of waste treatment. Various waste treatment technologies-including those that take advantage of ecosystem services provided by feedstock production-were compared in terms of capital and operating costs, as well as technical feasibility.
It is concluded that wastewater treatment technologies should be better integrated with conversion process design and feedstock production. Efforts to recycle resources throughout the biofuel supply chain through application of ecosystem services provided by adjacent feedstock plantations and recovery of resources from the waste stream to reduce overall capital and operating costs of bioconversion facilities.
生物基产品的生产和使用相较于传统石化产品具有优势，但其相对较高的生产成本限制了它们的广泛应用。优化废水处理工艺可以减少资本支出，降低木质纤维素生物精炼厂进入市场的壁垒。本文对与木质纤维素乙醇生产相关的废水进行了表征，并评估了潜在的废水处理操作。
发现有机物质是生物转化废水的固有成分，每吨加工原料中生物需氧量高达260千克。废水中的无机物主要源于预处理和pH调节过程中的添加物，每吨加工原料会使无机负荷增加44千克。调整乙醇生产工艺以减少无机物质的添加量，可以降低废物处理的需求和成本。对各种废物处理技术进行了比较，包括那些利用原料生产所提供的生态系统服务的技术，比较内容涉及资本和运营成本以及技术可行性。
得出的结论是，废水处理技术应更好地与转化工艺设计和原料生产相结合。通过应用相邻原料种植园提供的生态系统服务以及从废物流中回收资源，在整个生物燃料供应链中进行资源回收，以降低生物转化设施的总体资本和运营成本。
