Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011:2011:654596.
doi: 10.4061/2011/654596. Epub 2011 May 12.

Chemistry based on renewable raw materials: perspectives for a sugar cane-based biorefinery

Murillo Villela Filho  1 , Carlos Araujo, Alfredo Bonfá, Weber Porto
Affiliations

Chemistry based on renewable raw materials: perspectives for a sugar cane-based biorefinery

Murillo Villela Filho et al. Enzyme Res. 2011.

Abstract

Carbohydrates are nowadays a very competitive feedstock for the chemical industry because their availability is compatible with world-scale chemical production and their price, based on the carbon content, is comparable to that of petrochemicals. At the same time, demand is rising for biobased products. Brazilian sugar cane is a competitive feedstock source that is opening the door to a wide range of bio-based products. This essay begins with the importance of the feedstock for the chemical industry and discusses developments in sugar cane processing that lead to low cost feedstocks. Thus, sugar cane enables a new chemical industry, as it delivers a competitive raw material and a source of energy. As a result, sugar mills are being transformed into sustainable biorefineries that fully exploit the potential of sugar cane.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sugar price (US$/mt) compared to crude oil price (US$/bbl) evolution, source: NYBOT.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Energy efficiency of sugar cane ethanol (bottom), sugar cane ethanol (average), sugar cane ethanol (top), and corn ethanol (USA average) productions: energy efficiency expressed as ratio BOE output/BOE input, BOE = barrel of oil equivalent (Source: [18], [20]).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Flowchart of a modern usina.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Biorefinery concept: in an efficient biorefinery, mass and energy flow are integrated and recycled in order to provide the maximum efficiency and the lowest cost; the integration into agriculture enables waste streams to be reused in cane plantation and CO2 to be recycled via photosynthesis.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Example of biorefinery flowchart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Miranda JR. História da cana de açúcar—History of sugarcane. Campinas, Brazil: Komedi; 2008.
    1. Krätz O. 7000 Jahre Chemie. München, Germany: Georg D. W. Callwey; 1990.
    1. Shreve RN, Brink JA. Chemical Process Industries. 4th edition. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill; 1977.
    1. Alfke G, Irion WW, Neuwirth OS. Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry: Oil Refining. 7th edition. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH; 2010.
    1. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) Levantamento sistemático da produção agrícola. Lavouras, December 2010, http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/indicadores/agropecuaria/lspa/ls....