To establish the production cost and market needs for bio-butanol derived from integrated processing of municipal solid waste

Use of municipal solid waste (MSW) as a feedstock for biofuel production should deliver
economic biofuels that are environmentally friendly and more socially acceptable. This
potential provides the UK with a tremendous opportunity to build a more sustainable and
environmentally friendly biofuel industry, Alternative uses of MSW diverts material away
from landfill and is more socially, politically and environmentaly friendly.
We plan to determine biofuel production costs based on the cost of feedstock (MSW) and the
associated conversion costs for pre-treatment using autoclave technology, enzymatic
hydrolysis and fermentation technology. The individual unit operations are well understood
and tested but need to be integrated together in order to ascertain the overall production cost.