Bioethanol from Waste Bananas: Feasibility Study and Design of an Ethanol Plant for St.Lucia

There has been much debate concerning the energy value of ethanol, whether it is a sustainable transition fuel and what impact its production will have on food resources. This book addresses these issues by proposing an energy self sufficient ethanol plant that utilizes waste banana stock as a feed crop thereby making no additional demands on arable land. The energy return on investment for this plant is also estimated and a financial model is drawn up to determine economic feasibility. In the most profitable scenario, the estimated operational cost of ethanol production is £0.39/liter with profit before taxes of £44,108 for a 460000 liter per year facility. This scenario results in a maximum selling price of £0.45/liter at an IRR of 11% for a 15 year operation. The study focuses on the island of St.Lucia which is a banana producing state in the West Indies and concludes that establishment of an ethanol plant will require government support. The process used is very simple and appropriate for small developing banana producing countries or any large banana farm.