How can you make bioethanol from cassava starch?

Recently, the demand for bioethanol is increasing due to its wide applications in chemical, potable and motor-fuel industries. Bioethanol is traditionally produced from feedstock high in sugar or starch content. Cassava has been used as source of starch for decades. Cassava starch is one of the best fermentable crops for the production of bioethanol because it produces high yields and boasts tremendous starch content (70 85%, dry base / 28 35% wet base), therefore producing high amounts of bioethanol per ton. Also the technology of producing bioethanol from starch is internationally well-developed. Cassava is performing average to good on all processing steps. Under optimal conditions bioethanol yield from cassava is the highest of all the main ethanol crops (up to 6 t/ha). Moreover, a cassava ethanol plant requires less complex processing equipment resulting in lower investments. After harvesting the cassava, the roots are chopped into chips and transported to drying floors. The roots are usually dried in the sun. Once the chips are dried, they can be stored for months. However, during storage, starch yield tends to decrease, depending on storage temperature: typically 5% reduction of starch yield in 8 month storage. Another advantage of chips is that it is easy to transport. A big advantage of cassava over many other traditional crops is its year-round availability which results in a constant supply of cassava to the bioethanol production facility in contrast to more seasonally crops. The bioethanol production process consists of three basic steps: milling and liquefaction, fermentation and purification. The first step is an enzymatic process which involves the breaking down of starch molecules into its building block molecules: glucose. The second step involves yeast that aids in the conversion of glucose to ethanol. The third step is a distillation process which separates ethanol from other reaction products and inert materials. On an industrial scale, these processes are carried out with two distinguishable technologies namely the wet milling process and the dry grinding process. The wet milling process starts with soaking the cassava chips in an acid to soften the material which results in the separation of starch from other components. The fibers are recovered in several separation steps. Next the starch and protein are separated. In this process the steams are fractionated and several co-products can be recovered. Most streams are recovered before the fermentation step. On the other hand, the dry grinding process starts with grinding the chips. This is done by hammer mills or roller mills. Next the ground material is mixed with water, cooked and mixed with enzymes. This process produces only one co-product, the distiller dried grains with soluble, which is separated at the end of the whole process after fermentation.