Title Page

Abstract

Contents

1. Introduction 9

1.1. Purpose Statement 14

1.2. Objectives 14

2. METHODOLOGY 16

3. LITERATURE REVIEW 17

3.1. Lignocellulose 17

3.2. Pretreatment 18

3.3. White Rot Fungi 20

3.4. Effectiveness of white rot fungi in breaking down lignin 21

3.5. Cost benefit analysis 22

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1. Feedstock cost 26

4.2. Social cost of carbon 30

4.3. Pretreatment 31

4.4. Capital investment, operating and unit sugar production cost. 32

4.5. Preparation unit 34

4.6. Pretreatment unit 34

4.7. Detoxification 35

4.8. Hydrolysis unit. 35

4.9. Limitations To Biological Pretreatment. 40

5. Conclusion 42

6. References 43

국문초록 54

Appendix 55

1. Cost benefit analysis for biological pretreatment 55

2. Cost benefit analysis for acid pretreatment 56

Table 1. Cost of harvesting and transportation of feedstock in USD 29

Table 2. Total investment cost 32

Table 3. Annual feedstock and utility requirements for acid pretreatment for 1,499,958 tons of Biomass. 36

Table 4. Annual feedstock requirements for Biological pretreatment for 3,351,486 tons of biomass 37

Table 5. Cost of production of a kilogram of fermentable sugars and cost of feedstock 38

Figure 1. Utility and Material flow to produce 1 ton of fermentable sugars using biological or Acid pretreatment. 33