Abstract
Biomass ethanol is remarkable as the 'carbon neutral' fuel because it does not increase atmospheric CO2 concentration. We constructed a pilot scale biomass ethanol production plant using house wood as the feed stock. The waste water generated from biomass ethanol production process has a dark color originated from lignin or sugar degradation products. Since this color cannot be removed by biological treatment, other suitable treatment process must be adopted. Reduction of water treatment cost is also important. Recycling the waste water is one of the suitable ways to reduce the water treatment cost. But inhibition of fermentation is concerned which would be occurred by impurities originated from house wood and concentrated during the recycle. In this study we evaluated some water treatment method for biomass ethanol process. We also calculated the concentration ratio caused by waste water recycling and investigated the inhibition of fermentation.
