Moving on from research to a commercial process
The estimated cost of producing ethanol from cellulosic
materials varies widely between investigations, as shown
both in some earlier review papers [57,58], with production
costs in the range of 0.28 to 1.0 US$/l ethanol, and in more
recent techno-economic evaluations [13,59,60]. However,
most cost estimations are based on laboratory-scale and, to
some extent, pilot-scale data for individual process steps
and should be treated with caution. The cost of raw material,
which varies considerably between different studies
(US$22–US$61 per metric ton dry matter), and the capital
costs, which makes the total cost dependent on plant
capacity, contribute most to the total production cost.
The cost for hydrolysis, particularly for the enzymatic
process, is also a major cost contributor.