Integrated Design and Analysis of Chemical Production from Biomass Feedstocks

Integrated Design and Analysis of Chemical Production from Biomass Feedstocks

Abhay Athaley¹, Praneeth Annam¹, Basudeb Saha², Marianthi Ierapetritou¹

¹ Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey

^2. Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation & Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware

This work principally concentrates on the integrated design, techno-economic and the life-cycle analysis of the production of chemicals from the lignocellulose biomass. The priority for the development of variate fine chemicals from biomass feedstock stepped-up over the changing time. The idea of bio-refinery has been proposed that uses different conversion technologies to produce multiple products. The success of bio-refinery is highly dependent on its mature technology and its applicability to produce not only high volume low cost fuels but also to produce low volume high cost chemicals.[1]

Bio-based products acceptance in the market depends on the competitiveness of economics and sustainability when compared to oil-based chemicals and products. In our previous work, [2]we investigated a novel hydrolysis process[3] for the productions of sugars and the subsequent production of para-Xylene and compared it with two other hydrolysis process (Concentrated acid hydrolysis and Dilute acid hydrolysis) using techno-economic and life cycle assessment. In our present work, we integrate the novel hydrolysis process to production of other high value chemicals such as surfactants,[4] butadiene, 2-methyl styrene etc. and high value jet fuels and combine it with the production process of para-Xylene and phthalic anhydride.[5] The aforementioned chemicals are lucrative and also it furthers our goal of designing an integrated bio-refinery.

This work uses techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment to design and evaluate the production alternatives. The detailed process flowsheet is developed and simulated using Aspen Plus. The steps for the production of different chemicals and fuels are integrated with the novel hydrolysis process into a single flowsheet. Next, heat integration and economic analysis is carried out to calculate the minimum selling price of each of the product. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is performed to analyze the bottlenecks of entire process and to compare the cost of the chemicals with fluctuating cost of raw materials and capacity of the plant. It is also seen that the overall cost of raw materials increases considerably for the production of surfactants as compared to other chemicals such as butadiene or phthalic anhydride. To check the competitiveness of the above process in terms of sustainability Life Cycle Analysis is carried out on SimaPro®. The results with respect to carbon production and water consumption are shown and compared to the current oil based processes.

References:

1.         Lin, Z., V. Nikolakis, and M. Ierapetritou, Alternative Approaches for p-Xylene Production from Starch: Techno-Economic Analysis. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2014. 53(26): p. 10688-10699.

2.         Athaley A., S.B., Ierapetritou M.,, TECHNO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF HYDROLYSIS PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF P-XYLENE. 2017.

3.         Sadula, S., Athaley, A., Zheng, W., Ierapetritou, M., Saha, B., Process Intensification for Cellulosic Biorefineries. ChemSusChem, 2017. 10.

4.         Park D., J.K., Koehle M., Krumm C., Ren L., Damen J., Shete M., Lee H., Zuo X., Lee B., Fan W., Vlachos., Lobo R., Tsapatsis M., Dauenhauer P.,, Tunable Oleo-Furan Surfactants by Acylation of Renewable Furans. ACS Catalysis, 2016. 2: p. 820-824.

5.         Lin, Z., Ierapetritou, M., Nikolakis, V.,, Phthalic anhydride production from hemicellulose solutions: Technoeconomic analysis and life cycle assessment. AIChE Journal, 2015. 61: p. 3708-3718.