ABSTRACT
The first generation of bioethanol production processes is based on sugar or starch. This chapter illustrates the design procedure of an ethanol plant able to process different raw materials, such as starch from wheat grain and sucrose from sugar beet, using the example of the Biowanze fuel ethanol plant in Belgium. Distillation and dehydration can be considered the heart of an ethanol plant, and probably the part where the know-how of an expert engineering office is the most valuable. The ethanol content must be determined as a compromise between optimal fermentation characteristics and optimal distillation characteristics. When several raw materials for bioethanol production are combined in different proportions, a separate balance has to be established for each design case. Once the mass flow of the main streams is determined, a tabulated mass and energy balance (MEB) has to be established. This is the starting point for the detailed engineering, where equipment is dimensioned according to indications of the balance.
