Coal and Biomass to Liquid Transportation Fuels: Process Synthesis and Global Optimization Strategies

Abstract

The thermochemical conversion of coal and biomass to liquid transportation fuels from a synthesis gas intermediate is investigated using an optimization-based process synthesis framework. Two distinct types of coal (LV bituminous and coal commonly found in the province of Anhui, China) and two types of biomass (hardwood and duckweed) are considered as feedstocks. The superstructure incorporates alternative conversion pathways of synthesis gas which include methanol formation and conversion into Fischer–Tropsch hydrocarbons. Methanol may be converted to gasoline or olefins, and the olefins may be subsequently converted to gasoline and distillate. A rigorous deterministic global optimization branch-and-bound framework is utilized to determine the optimal process topology that produces liquid fuels at the lowest possible cost. Economies of scale are evident as the refinery capacity increases and it is observed that the fuel ratios of the final liquid products have a significant impact on the optimal topology of the plant. The results suggest that liquid fuels production from coal and biomass can be competitive with petroleum-based processes.

Multi‐scale systems engineering for energy and the environment: Challenges and opportunities

“…51 Maronese et al also considered Fischer-Tropsch products, methanol, electricity, and synthetic natural gas production from wood biomass using integer-cuts for an mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to rank the different conversion pathways considered based on minimal production costs. 52 Embracing the multi-scale computational hierarchy, the gasifier model proposed by Baliban et al was used in subsequent models investigating the conversion of biomass (B), 53-55 biomass and natural gas (G), 56 biomass and coal (C), 57 and biomass, natural gas, and coal 58-61 to liquid transportation fuels (L). These studies used superstructure based methods, modeled as large-scale non-convex mixedinteger nonlinear optimization (MINLP) problems, and deterministic global optimization to determine the optimal process topology that produced fuels at the lowest cost.…”

“…The superstructures proposed contained several competing routes, including Fischer-Tropsch refining, methanol-to-gasoline, as well as methanol-to-olefins (MTO) and olefins-to-gasoline/distillate technologies. For refineries producing 50,000 barrels per day of liquid fuels, researchers found breakeven oil prices (BEOP) as low as [$]79/barrel for CBGTL refineries, 58 [$]55/ barrel for CBTL refineries, 57 [$]63/barrel for BTL refineries, 53 and [$]66/barrel for BGTL refineries. 56 The MINLP models have inherent uncertainties within the parameters introduced.…”

Integrated biomass and fossil fuel systems towards the production of fuels and chemicals: state of the art approaches and future challenges

“…10,11 Recently Niziolek et al, have investigated the conversion of coal and biomass to liquid transportation fuels using an optimization-based process synthesis framework. 42 Several alternative pathways for synthesis gas (syngas) conversion and hydrocarbon upgrading were compared simultaneously to determine the optimal process topology that can produce liquid fuels at the lowest cost. 42…”

Rewarding of extra-avoided GHG emissions in thermochemical biorefineries incorporating Bio-CCS

“…However, it depends on fossil fuel price compared to biomass. Several studies have analyzed this [45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous studies of this kind in the literature. Unlike previous studies [3,33,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][45][46][47][48][49][50], in this study a general analysis is presented, where the main factors affecting the update of the techno-economic assessment are described. Since thermochemical biorefineries achieve a GHG saving above the minimum target in the EU, the sale of all extra-avoided GHG emissions (not only from Bio-CCS) is analyzed.…”