Bioethylene Production: From Reaction Kinetics to Plant Design

Abstract

Ethylene production from renewable bioethanol has been commercially proposed in recent years as a sustainable alternative to fossil sources. The possibility to exploit diluted bioethanol as less expensive feedstock was studied both experimentally, using different catalysts at lab-level, and through preliminary process designs. In this work a full-scale plant simulation is presented, built on a detailed reaction kinetics, based on literature data. Rate equations for the primary and side reactions are revised and implemented within the Aspen Plus simulation package, using a range of thermodynamic methods, as best suited to the different process stages. The catalyst loading within the reactor can be effectively distributed according to the underlying kinetics, and the overall plant layout lets foresee the best routes for the material recycling. The detailed reaction modeling and the choice of the thermodynamic models proved essential to obtain reliable predictions. Setting a target yield of 105 tons/year of polymer-grade ethylene, the reactive section must be fed with 76 tons/h of diluted ethanol and operated below 400 °C. The energy input amounts to 17 MWel plus 73 MWth. This newly designed process sets out sustainable ethylene production on a detailed and reassessed computational basis.

Bioconversion of wood waste to bio-ethylene: A review

“…Such strategies may include reducing the consumption of enzymes, reagents, and water, among others, in addition to new strategic policies for bio-based products. The production of derivatives and new products must be developed for the emerging bio-based markets (Mohsenzadeh et al 2017;Tripodi et al 2019). Biopolyethylene, which can be replaced in various uses by degradable bioplastics, is still essential in some medical and industrial applications.…”

Exergy Footprint Assessment of Cotton Textile Recycling to Polyethylene

“…The ethanol concentration by distillation and the proposed alternatives to improve this step are rigorously simulated using the commercial simulator Aspen Plus ® v. 10 [52] with the UNIQUAC thermodynamic model and estimating the missing vapour-liquid equilibrium parameters with UNIFAC. According to the requirements of the process proposed by Tripodi et al [55], the ethanol purity obtained is to produce ethylene from ethanol. According to Figure 3, mass flowrate is assumed constant in the cycle of ethylene to waved fibres.…”

“…The CO 2 emissions would decrease by the same amount. The process proposed by Tripodi et al [55] to produce ethylene is considered. The main energy consumption is due to ethanol distillation and ethylene production, while the rest are negligible.…”

Modeling and Optimization of Ethanol to Ethylene Production over γ‐Al2O3 and CeZrO2 Catalysts Using RSM[1] Method

“…In 2010, due to environmental and availability issues, as well as the low cost of ethanol produced from sugarcane in Brazil, Braskem chemical company started ethylene production using ethanol as a feedstock [1] . The research on ethanol dehydration has concentrated on catalyst development [2–8] and reactor design [9–11] . The reaction is generally carried out at temperatures varying from 300 to 500 °C, under moderate pressures, and in the presence of catalysts such as activated alumina or silica, phosphoric acid impregnated in coke, silica‐alumina, zeolites, and others.…”