Beyond ethanol, sugar, and electricity: a critical review of product diversification in Brazilian sugarcane mills

Abstract

Process integration is an interesting option to reduce costs and improve the economic viability of new processes in sugarcane mills. Brazil has a prolific sugar‐energy sector, with hundreds of sugarcane mills that could possibly act as sources of carbon, energy, and water for annexed plants. While many studies analyze the integration of new technologies into sugarcane biorefineries as greenfield plants, the assessment and establishment of integrated processes into existing plants will help detecting process bottlenecks and enabling the required levels of integration to be better understood prior to designing a full‐scale, greenfield biorefinery. The present review provides an overview of the possibilities for sugarcane mills to diversify the portfolio of products from sugarcane biomass – beyond ethanol, sugar, and electric energy. The work initially considers the integrated production of market‐ready sugarcane‐derived products, such as animal feed, industrial salts, and hydrocarbons in existing Brazilian plants. Finally, the study outlines the prospects for future integration of non‐traditional process alternatives in sugarcane mills, namely bioplastics, organic acids, molecular hydrogen, and advanced lignocellulosic compounds. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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