Cellulosic Ethanol - Production Methods

Production Methods

The two ways of producing ethanol from cellulose are:

• Cellulolysis processes which consist of hydrolysis on pretreated lignocellulosic materials, using enzymes to break complex cellulose into simple sugars such as glucose, followed by fermentation and distillation.
• Gasification that transforms the lignocellulosic raw material into gaseous carbon monoxide and hydrogen. These gases can be converted to ethanol by fermentation or chemical catalysis.

As is normal for pure ethanol production, these methods include distillation.