ABSTRACT
Pilot plants and large-scale facilities that convert lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol have existed since the early 1900s. The newer pilot plants are generally more flexible, highly instrumented, and able to investigate alternative process configurations than are the older plants. This chapter briefly reviews acid and enzymatic conversion technology and some of the many pilot plants that have been built for converting lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol. The production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass depends on converting the complex cellulosic and hemicellulosic carbohydrates into simple sugars, which can then be fermented into ethanol by various microorganisms. The chapter also briefly reviews the two primary techniques for hydrolyzing the polymeric carbohydrates into their constituent sugars. The two primary techniques are acid conversion and enzymatic conversion. The chapter describes pilot plants that have been built to investigate biomass-to-ethanol conversion, although not all plants complete the process.
