Scandinavian Hardwood Biorefinery Using “near-neutral” Hemicelluloses Pre-extraction- Energy Efficiency Measures

Paper in proceeding, 2011

While in a conventional mill, the hemicelluloses and lignin fraction of the wood is burned in the recovery boiler to produce steam, in a biorefinery it can be used to produce added value products. In this paper, a comprehensive heat integration study for an average Scandinavian kraft model mill, as well as for a hemicelluloses extraction process with further utilization for ethanol production, is performed. The results show that when the total integration of the hemicelluloses utilization process with the mill is considered, the integrated biorefinery could become self-sufficient in terms of steam.