Material flow management and cleaner production of cassava processing for future food, feed and fuel in Thailand

This research applied Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) to identify the costs of material and energy loss, as well as the opportunity for technology improvement to increase productivity in starch and ethanol productivity in Thailand. The results showed that ethanol production incurred more loss cost than starch production because it entails several conversion processes. Scenario for technology improvement was evaluated and expanded to the broader scale of the whole country to assess the possibility of increasing cassava feedstock in order to meet the AEDP target. The result shows that the Very High Gravity (VHG) and Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) processes can increase plant capacity and efficiency. Ethanol production from cassava pulp can also play an important role in meeting the Renewable and Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP) and utilizing by-product from starch processing, increasing its value and offsetting loss cost from starch production plant. Those improved options in the scenario can help to reduce cassava feedstock amount required to produce ethanol for the AEDP target. Yield improvement can satisfy feedstock requirement without the need of land for plantation expansion, reduce cassava export and allocation of more molasses for ethanol production.