Ethanol production potential from AFEX™ and steam-exploded sugarcane residues for sugarcane biorefineries

Table 3 Estimated ethanol yield per hectare of sugarcane cultivation area

	Yield
Sugarcane crop segment
Average cane yield (Mg wet cane ha⁻¹)	80.0
Bagasse (kg dry fibre Mg⁻¹ wet cane)^a	140.0
Available bagasse (Mg dry fibre ha⁻¹)^b	11.2
Cane leaf matter (kg dry fibre Mg⁻¹ wet cane)^a	140.0
Available cane leaf matter (Mg dry fibre/Mg wet cane)^c	5.6
2G Bagasse + CLM—ethanol yield (L ha⁻¹)^d
AFEX™—Process I	4496
StEx (washed solids + C₅-liquor)—Process II	3416
StEx (unwashed solids + C₅-liquor)—Process III	3341
StEx (whole slurry)—Process IV	2911

^aEstimated sugarcane bagasse and cane leaf matter yield per ton wet cane [16]
^bAssuming 75% of bagasse collected from the sugar mill is allocated to biofuel production and the remainder will supplement lignin-rich enzymatic residues for energy cogeneration
^cAssuming 50% of the CLM harvested on the field can be removed without significantly affecting soil fertility [18,19,20,21]
^dEthanol yield calculated by multiplying available bagasse or CLM (Mg dry fibre ha⁻¹) with the experimental ethanol yield (L Mg dry fibre⁻¹)

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