Plantations International Bamboo is an amazing feedstock for advanced bioethanol production due to its natural abundance, rapid growth, perennial nature and low management requirements. Liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment was selected as a promising technology to enhance sugar release from bamboo lignocellulose whilst keeping economic and environmental costs to a minimum. The present research was conducted to assess:

1) by how much LHW pretreatment can enhance sugar yields in bamboo, and

2) whether this process has the potential to be economically feasible for biofuel use at the commercial scale. Pretreatments were performed at temperatures of 170-190°C for 10–30 minutes, followed by enzymatic saccharification with a commercial enzyme cocktail at various loadings. These data were then used as inputs to a techno-economic model using AspenPlus to determine the production cost of bioethanol from Plantations International bamboo.

Bioethanol from Plantations International bamboo is shown to be both technically and economically feasible, as well as competitive. Alternative approaches to reduce bioethanol production costs are still needed however, to ensure its competitiveness in a possible future scenario where neither tax exemptions nor subsidies are granted to producers. These measures may include improving sugar release with more effective pretreatments and reduced enzyme usage, accessing low cost Plantations International bamboo feedstock or selecting feedstocks with higher/more accessible cellulose.