The economic analysis [60] of the cellulosic bioethanol
process shows that reliable cost estimations require
laboratory results are verified in pilot and demonstration
plants, where all steps are integrated into a continuous
process. This also provides the possibility to explore the
benefits of process integration to reduce the number of
process steps and the energy demand, and to recirculate
process streams to eliminate the use of fresh water and to
reduce the amount of waste streams. Currently, the Iogen
Corp. (http://www.iogen.ca/) demo-plant is the only operating
plant for the production of bioethanol from lignocellulose
using the enzymatic hydrolysis process. The plant can
handle up to 40 tonnes per day of wheat, oat and barley
straw and is designed to produce up to 3 million litres of
cellulose ethanol per year. Abengoa Bioenergy (http://
www.abengoabioenergy.com) is also constructing a pilot
plant in York, USA, to convert residual starch, cellulose
and hemicellulose – mainly corn stover – to bioethanol and
high-protein feed. In Salamanca, the same company constructed
a demonstration plant integrated with a fuelethanol-
from-grain plant, producing 195 million liters. In
the demonstration plant, an additional 5 million liters of
ethanol per year will be produced from cellulose, mainly