Design of biorefinery systems for conversion of corn stover into biofuels using a biorefinery engineering framework

Abstract

Unlocking the potential and value of lignocellulosic residues is an important step in making biorefineries economically and environmentally promising. This calls for a holistic and systematic approach in designing sustainable industrial systems. In this work, a biorefinery systems via biochemical route (acetone-butanol-ethanol or ABE system) and thermochemical route (gasification and mixed alcohols or GMA system) for converting corn stover into biofuels have been designed using a Sustainable Engineering Framework. The framework involves eight main steps: 1) design problem definition, 2) data collection, 3) process synthesis and simulation, 4) process integration, 5) resource recovery from residues, 6) utility system design, 7) economic and environmental modelling and 8) economic value and environmental impact (EVEI) margin analysis for decision making. Consideration of resource recovery from biorefinery waste streams has proven to be the key in making biorefineries self-sustaining and low environmental impacts.. Simultaneous economic and environmental feasibility assessment at the early 19 stage of process design is highly envisaged. The cost of biofuel production in the ABE system has been 20

Economic value and environmental impact analysis of lignocellulosic ethanol production: assessment of different pretreatment processes

“…The increased in conversion leads to the second point, a higher concentration of ethanol in the downstream process. 2) A higher ethanol concentration is responsible for utility savings in the separation and purification area, contributing to both economic and environmental aspects of the processes (Martinez Hernandez and Ng, 2018).…”

Combining Environmental and Economic Performance for Bioprocess Optimization

“…In addition to performing TEA and LCA separately for biochemicals, results from both tools can be combined to evaluate the environmental and economic sustainability for optimization of individual processes [49] or to assess different process designs [51,53]. Some examples are given in Table 2.…”

Biorefinery Concept Applied to Phytochemical Extraction and Bio-Syngas Production using Agro-Industrial Waste Biomass: A Review

“…Second-generation or type II biomass is a renewable source of energy and it corresponds to the biodegradable fraction of products, wastes and residues of agriculture, forestry, cattle raising and related industries, as well as the above-mentioned fraction of municipal and industrial wastes (Bentsen et al, 2014;Löffler et al, 2010;Martinez et al, 2018). Additionally, biomass is the only renewable resource that can be transformed into gas, liquid and/or solid fuels by physical, thermal, thermochemical and/or biological processes (see Figure 1) (Balagurumurthy, Singh, Ohri, and Prakash, 2015;Escalante Hernández, Orduz Prada, Zapata Lesmes, Cardona Ruiz, and Duarte Ortega, 2010;ISAGEN, 2005).…”

“…This type of recovery is carried out at facilities known as biorefineries, which provide a conversion process with different products (energy, food/fodder, materials, chemicals, etc.) with ideally zero waste production (Carey et al, 2016;Martinez, Kok, and Ng, 2018;Ubando et al, 2020). This enables the recovery of nutrients to produce fertilizers by extracting high value-added phytochemicals (e.g., caffeine, polyphenols, and saponins, etc.)…”