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Bioethanol from Starch

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Renewable Energy Systems

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Definition of the Subject and Its Importance

Ethanol is a very interesting chemical compound which can be used in different applications such as drinking alcohol in beverages as well as in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and biofuels. Production of alcoholic beverages based on biomass containing sugar can be assumed as old as human civilization. The production of ethanol from starch using a fermentation process started most probably in beer-producing countries approximately in the twelfth century. The production of “pure” ethanol is also a very long known process. The development of more efficient distillation processes in the nineteenth century led to large increase in industrial trade of ethanol. The largest amount of the industrial ethanol was still used for alcoholic beverages. But also other applications like the use in the chemical industry, as lamp fuel and as a fuel have been exploited. The use of ethanol as a fuel...

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Abbreviations

Alcohol:

Often used trivial name for ethanol, in chemistry it describes the class of alcohols including also methanol, butanol, etc.

Bioethanol:

Product of a fermentative process used mainly as a fuel from renewable substrates in comparison to the use of fossil fuels.

Ethanol:

Chemical name of an alcohol with the molecular formula CH3–CH2–OH and is the same chemical substance as bioethanol and has other synonyms like bioethanol, ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, or drinking alcohol.

DDGS:

Animal feed called “distillers’ dried grain with solubles.”

Fermentation:

Process step which produces ethanol and CO2 as product.

Liquefaction:

Enzymatic process step using amylases to cut the starch chains into oligosaccharides.

Saccharification:

Enzymatic process step using beta-amylases and glucoamylases to cut oligosaccharides into fermentable sugars.

Starch:

Starch is a very important part of the human food in sources like wheat, maize, rice, potatoes, and many other plants and is also a source of sugars for the fermentation.

Thin stillage:

Liquid stream received from the decanter containing dissolved nutrients and salts.

Yeast:

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the organism used in the ethanol production industry.

Wet cake:

Solid-rich stream received from the decanter containing nutrients like proteins.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/166-2, Vienna, Austria

    Anton Friedl

Authors
  1. Anton Friedl
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Correspondence to Anton Friedl .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. German Biomass Research Centre, Leipzig, Germany

    Martin Kaltschmitt

  2. Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Kaltschmitt

  3. Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Nickolas J. Themelis

  4. Ormat Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, USA

    Lucien Y. Bronicki

  5. Royal Institute of Technology, Electric Power Systems, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lennart Söder

  6. Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, School of Ocean And Earth Science And Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Luis A. Vega

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Friedl, A. (2013). Bioethanol from Starch . In: Kaltschmitt, M., Themelis, N.J., Bronicki, L.Y., Söder, L., Vega, L.A. (eds) Renewable Energy Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5820-3_432

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