Search

In recent years, Agave has shown its potential as a bioenergy feedstock with a higher land productivity (up to 42 ton/ha year) than traditional feedstocks. Other features are its adaptation mechanism to high temperatures and its resistance to drought. The agronomics of Agave in Mexico are discussed, including total land planted, inputs required, and the harvesting and transport costs. Heating values, mineral concentration, and carbohydrate and lignin content show the potential of the Agave species to compete with current bioenergy crops. Currently, the pre-treatment of Agave is the most widely studied stage in biofuels and value-added products, which include technologies capable of reducing its recalcitrance while removing xylan and/or lignin and reducing cellulose crystallinity, among other effects, to increase the overall yield in saccharification and fermentation, which will be discussed as well. In addition to spirits and fibers from industrial interests, different liquid (ethanol and n-butanol) and gaseous (methane and hydrogen) biofuels, including certain value-added products (enzymes, lactic acid, and succinic acid), can be obtained from Agave in high yields. The main objective of this review is to address the recent advances in the utilization of Agave as a bioenergy feedstock for biofuels and value-added products within a sustainable biorefinery scheme. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioethanol as fuel oxygenator is currently being introduced in Mexico with an estimated yearly demand of 3 billion liters expected to be produced mainly from sugarcane. This paper studies how to employ some of the expertise acquired by Brazil during its transition from typical mills into advanced biorefineries to retrofit the Mexican sucroalcohol industry. A typical Mexican sugarcane factory design is retrofitted to three biorefinery designs commonly found in Brazil, which are an autonomous distillery, a biorefinery with 50:50 feedstock ratio for ethanol and sugar production and a molasses distillery. The results of a techno-economic analysis considering these four designs under Mexican conditions are presented, followed by an economic comparison of the autonomous distillery design operating under Mexican and Brazilian conditions. Sustainability analysis is then carried out to identify the advantages and drawbacks of each design. The analysis compares an environment-driven scenario promoting bioethanol production and use for phasing out fossil fuels, against a commercially focused framework considering only environmental and economic issues affecting stakeholders' profit. Results show in monetary terms the impact of each indicator of a retrofitting path from currently profitable biorefineries coproducing sugar and alcohol to sustainable distilleries using molasses and juice as feedstock to produce bioethanol. • Retrofitting the Mexican sugar industry with Brazilian expertise for ethanol production. • Techno-economic and sustainability analyses of all designs. • Calculation with same tools and bases, thus highlighting differences between countries. • Comparison of environment-driven sustainability versus current commercial practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]