Controllability Analysis of Process Alternatives for Biobutanol Purification

Abstract

Biobutanol has characteristics similar to petroleum fuel and is considered as a superior biofuel compared to ethanol. The development of technologies for biobutanol production by fermentation has resulted in higher final biobutanol concentrations together with less energy-intensive separation and purification techniques. These new technological developments have the potential to provide a production process for biobutanol that is economically viable in comparison to the petrochemical pathway for its production. The control properties of four different possible process designs for biobutanol purification are analyzed. The results, using the singular value decomposition technique, indicated that the scheme where only biobutanol flow is purified, and both ethanol and acetone leaving the purification process mixed with water and biobutanol traces, showed the best control properties.

Analysis of intensified sustainable schemes for biobutanol purification

“…The systems with higher minimum singular values and lower condition numbers are expected to show the best dynamic performance under feedback control [47]. In other work, Angelina-Martínez et al [20] have demonstrated the application of the SVD technique to compare the controllability properties of the intensified separation structures.…”

“…The control system is robust and applicable to systems that are designed for a wide range of feed compositions. The control properties of four different processes (based on conventional distillation), for the purification of butanol, acetone, ethanol, and water, are analyzed in the work of Angelina-Martínez et al [20] using the singular value decomposition method. The results indicated that the scheme where only the butanol stream is purified, and ethanol and acetone leave the purification process mixed with water and traces of butanol, has best control properties.…”

Energy‐Efficient Biobutanol Recovery Process Using 1‐Heptanol Extraction

“…The use of a decanter alleviates the energy demand by separating the liquid phase with high water content and the low-content phase containing water and butanol [7]. Similarly, extraction removes most of the water from fermented biobutanol and reduces the energy required for distillation-based water removal; the total annualized cost (TAC) of extraction is lower than that of the decanter/distillation process [8]. Instead of solvents, alternatives such as salts have been used to distill the organic phase from the aqueous phase [9].…”

Conventional Proportional‐Integral Control of a Dividing‐Wall Distillation Column with Discrete Measurements

“…Also, the cooling water required in the condenser changes in the same way as the energy supplied to the reboiler. Other applications of thermally coupled distillation columns include the purification of biobutanol, detecting the optimal operations in terms of energy consumption and controllability analysis 19.…”