Thermochemical production of liquid fuels from biomass: Thermo-economic modeling, process design and process integration analysis

Abstract

A detailed thermo-economic model combining thermodynamics with economic analysis and considering different technological alternatives for the thermochemical production of liquid fuels from lignocellulosic biomass is presented. Energetic and economic models for the production of Fischer-Tropsch fuel (FT), methanol (MeOH) and dimethyl ether (DME) by the means of biomass drying with steam or flue gas, directly or indirectly heated fluidized bed or entrained flow gasification, hot or cold gas cleaning, fuel synthesis and upgrading are reviewed and developed. The process is integrated and the optimal utility system is computed. The competitiveness of the different process options is compared systematically with regard to energetic, economic and environmental considerations. At several examples, it is highlighted that process integration is a key element that allows for considerably increasing the performance by optimal utility integration and energy conversion. The performance computations of some exemplary technology scenarios of integrated plants yield overall energy efficiencies of 59.8% (crude FT-fuel), 52.5% (MeOH) and 53.5% (DME), and production costs of 89, 128 and 113 e·M W h −1 on fuel basis. The applied process design approach allows to evaluate the economic competitiveness compared to fossil fuels, to study the influence of the biomass and electricity price and to project for different plant capacities. Process integration reveals in particular potential energy savings and waste heat valorization. Based on this work, the most promising options for the polygeneration of fuel, power and heat will be determined in a future thermo-economic optimization.

Co-production of hydrogen and electricity from lignocellulosic biomass: Process design and thermo-economic optimization

“…This paper follows a previously developed methodology for the optimal thermo-economic process design of liquid and gaseous fuel production from biomass [15,12,31,13]. The conceptual design methodology is illustrated in Figure 1.…”

“…The thermo-economic models for the drying, gasification and gas cleaning section have been developed in previous work [31,13,14] and the same specifications for the biomass and process units are considered in this work. The chemical conversion in the gasifier is modeled by equilibrium relationships with an artificial temperature difference as explained in [13,14].…”

“…This is done by applying a consistent methodology [15,12,31] combining thermodynamics with economic analysis, process integration techniques and using optimization strategies to generate optimal process configurations. The objective is to assess the competition between hydrogen or electricity only production processes and polygeneration with and without CO 2 capture by studying the influence of the operating conditions and process configurations.…”

Fischer‒Tropsch Conversion of Biomass‐Derived Synthesis Gas to Liquid Fuels

“…This can be done with amine absorption or physical absorption (i.e. Selexol process) 83 . It is also possible to include a reformer to convert light hydrocarbons from the gasifier into synthesis gas.…”

Estudo Da Produção De Energia Elétrica a Partir De Biogás Com E Sem Purificação De Estação De Tratamento De Esgoto

“…Os métodos de remoção das impurezas (gases ácidos) presentes no biogás, , são classificados em duas categorias: remoção física, que engloba um processo de absorção controlada pelas condições de pressão e temperatura (Loureiro et al, 2006;Yang et al, 2003), às quais o sistema é submetido; e remoção química, que representa o processo de absorção dependente de reações de neutralização ácido-base (Chaemchuen et al, 2016;Sircar et al, 2006;Tock et al, 2010;Vaidya et al, 2007). Segundo Elfattah et al (2016), em alguns casos, o processo de purificação a que o biogás é submetido favorece a redução combinada de compostos indesejados, como é o caso da remoção conjunta de parte do dióxido de carbono e do ácido sulfídrico durante a etapa de absorção física realizada através do uso de uma solução composta por dietanolamina (DEA) e água.…”