3572 Chapter 28 



The prices assigned to these products were: $9 each for crossties, $425/ 

 thousand board feet for long and wide laminated lumber, $225/thousand board 

 feet for pine studs, $ 1 80/thousand board feet for pallet parts, and $175/thousand 

 square feet for structural flakeboard. The highest price per ovendry ton was for 

 long and wide laminated lumber, $340, and the lowest price was for pallet parts, 

 $116.77. 



At the prices listed, the quantity of products produced and sold had a total 

 value of $78,512,972. 



Key statistics describing the enterprise are as follows: 



Capital investment $68,991 ,000 



Operating cost, annual $32,988,745 



Sales, annual $78,512,972 



Net profit, annual (before income tax) $45,524,227 



Return on sales 58.0 percent 



Return on investment 66.0 percent 



Employees 862 



Energy requirement, annual 



Electrical (purchased) kWh 



Diesel fuel 1 ,230,000 gallons 



Wood residues from operations 3.32 x 10^ Btu 



28-33 $93.6 MILLION— PRODUCTION OF ETHANOL, 

 FURFURAL, AND LIGNIN PRODUCTS BY HYDROLYSIS" 



Acid hydrolysis of wood to sugars has followed two routes, dilute-acid hy- 

 drolysis at elevated temperatures and concentrated-acid hydrolysis at lower 

 temperatures. This analysis is part of a larger study reexamining process condi- 

 tions, kinetics and yields in the Bergius process plants for wood hydrolysis 

 operated in Mannheim and Regensburg in Germany during World War II using 

 superconcentrated hydrochloric acid. 



Use, at low temperatures, of concentrated hydrochloric acid (30 percent) for 

 prehydrolysis of hemicelluloses to xylose followed by super-concentrated hy- 

 drochloric acid (>40 percent) for hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose permits 

 separation and high yield of the three major components of hardwood, i.e., 

 xylose, glucose, and a reactive lignin (fig. 28-37 top). The xylose is then 

 converted to furfural and the glucose is fermented to ethanol. The lignin may be 

 further processed to phenol or resins, or burned for fuel. 



Each ton of bark-free southern hardwood feedstock, ovendry- weight basis, 

 should yield about 200 pounds of furfural, 88 pounds of acetic acid, 400 pounds 

 (60 gallons) of ethanol, 400 pounds of carbon dioxide, and 435 pounds of lignin 

 (fig. 28-37 bottom). 



The proposed plant would daily consume about 1,109 tons of hardwood 

 feedstock plus about 870 tons of wood fuel (ovendry-weight basis), with annual 

 raw material consumption and product yield as shown in table 28-12. 



^^Condensed from Nguyen and Goldstein (1981). 



