Technoeconomic Analysis of Cellulosic Ethanol Production from Hardwoods in a Repurposed Kraft Mill

Trevor H. Treasure, Hasan Jameel, Richard B. Phillips, Hou-min Chang, Yongcan Jin, and Bon Wook Koo The North American pulp and paper industry is in decline due to falling demand for paper and board products and, in some cases, loss of market pulp share to lower-cost countries. As a result, more than 15 million tons of capacity has been permanently closed. At the same time as this decline in paper products, interest in biomass-to-biofuel has grown to unprecedented levels. Therefore, it would appear to be very attractive to repurpose kraft pulp mills to produce ethanol. In concept, repurposing features a number of signicant advantages over other approaches to bioethanol production: • A supply chain to grow, harvest, and deliver biomass is already in place, therefore avoiding new demand which might create price pressure on the raw material.