Economic and environmental optimization of the biobutanol purification process

Sánchez‐Ramírez, Eduardo; Quiroz‐Ramírez, Juan José; Segovia‐Hernández, Juan Gabriel; Hernández, Salvador; Ponce-Ortega, José María

doi:10.1007/s10098-015-1024-8

Cited by 25 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…the energy required in the form of steam for heating, the electricity used for pumping of cooling water, the amount of steel required to build the equipment). The results are consistent with the findings reported for other processes involving separation operations . Important reductions in the ECO99 values for the TCRD process are obtained due to the energy savings of this process with respect to the others.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Optimally designed reactive distillation processes for eco‐efficient production of ethyl levulinate

Vázquez-Castillo

Contreras-Zarazúa

Segovia‐Hernández

et al. 2019

J of Chemical Tech & Biotech

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BACKGROUND: Ethyl levulinate (EL) is an important chemical that can be used as a bio-based replacement of fuel additives such as methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME). EL production from lactic acid and ethanol is a viable option, as both precursors can be obtained from biomass. However, the problem of EL production by esterification is that this reaction is hindered by the chemical equilibrium limitations and the boiling points ranking, which is not the most favorable. RESULTS:This study provides novel optimally designed reactive distillation (RD) processes for the production of EL, taking into account costs, environmental impact and safety. The thermally coupled RD process is the most appealing, with the lowest energy use (1.667 MJ kg −1 EL), minimal investment cost, major energy savings (up to 54.3% lower than other RD processes), reduced environmental impact (up to 51% lower ECO99 index value) and similar safety as other RD processes considered (less than 2% differences in the individual risk (IR) indicator). CONCLUSION:The multi-objective optimization approach used here showed its robustness, practicality and flexibility to provide multiple optimal designs of intensified processes that are economically attractive, environmentally friendly and inherently safe. The first separation column (RC-1) performs the separation of water by-product as distillate from the main product (EL) and the unreacted LA. The second separation column (RC-2) wileyonlinelibrary.com/jctb Process optimizationThis study uses a multi-objective meta-heuristic optimization algorithm based on differential evolution and tabu list (MODE-TL), further details of which can be found elsewhere. 34 This algorithm allows the comparison of multiple solutions of optimized designs in the terms of multiple objective functions, described hereafter.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Optimally designed reactive distillation processes for eco‐efficient production of ethyl levulinate

Vázquez-Castillo

Contreras-Zarazúa

Segovia‐Hernández

et al. 2019

J of Chemical Tech & Biotech

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“…In particular, stochastic optimization algorithms proved to be able to handle this kind of complex problems, since it is not necessary to have explicit data of the model or its derivatives [12]. Many previous studies focused on reducing the economic impact of separation processes [13], and the inclusion of more objectives has been considered from a multi-objective optimization point of view [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal hybrid separations for intensified downstream processing of biobutanol

Sánchez‐Ramírez

Quiroz‐Ramírez

Hernández

et al. 2017

Separation and Purification Technology

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Current research focuses on new energy alternatives which could compete with the traditional energy sources based on fossil fuels, and eventually diminish the consequences on climate. Recently, butanol produced by ABE fermentation attracted more attention since its energy power is comparable to that of gasoline. But some hurdles are involved in the establishment of this fuel as an immediate substitute of fossil fuels, e.g. lower butanol concentration in the fermentation effluents and the expensive separation steps to purify the effluent. This work is the first to report the use of hybrid separation based on liquid-liquid extraction (LLX) combined with dividing-wall column (DWC) technology for the purification of the ABE (acetone-butanol-ethanol) mixture. The configurations proposed are the result of multiobjective optimization that aims to find designs that fulfill the tradeoff between those objectives: cost minimization, reduce environmental impact, and increase controllability. The downstream processing alternatives are designed and optimized by minimizing three objective functions simultaneously: the total annual cost (TAC) as an economical index, the eco-indicator 99 as an environmental function, and the condition number (CN) as control index. Among the four designs, the scheme where only a reboiler is included showed the best economic performances and relatively good values of condition number and eco indicator 99.

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“…The form of the Pareto front indicates that the ecoindicator is strongly influenced by the steam used to supply the energy in the processes, and the electricity necessary to pump the cooling water, whereas the steel used for equipment exerts less influence. Previous works -as the one reported by Sanchez-Ramirez et al 65 -have demonstrated that when steel has a strong influence in the eco-indicator, the relationship between TAC and EI99 corresponds to competing objectives. As can be noticed, there are several designs for all intensified schemes that have significant improvements in TAC and EI99 with the exception of heat integrated process (HIC) that has greater eco-indicator values than the benchmark configuration (Quaker Oats process).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…, Sanchez-Ramirez et al65 , Quiroz-Ramirez et al ,57 and Medina-Herrera et al25 . In order to demonstrate that the values of Pareto fronts are in the in the vicinity of the global optimum, the evolution of Pareto fronts through the generations for TEC sequences as a representative case is showed in theFigures S5-S7 of supplementary material.…”

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confidence: 97%

Inherently Safer Design and Optimization of Intensified Separation Processes for Furfural Production

Contreras-Zarazúa

Sánchez‐Ramírez

Vázquez-Castillo

et al. 2018

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

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Currently furfural production has increased the interest because of it is a bio-based chemical able to compete with fossil-based chemicals. Furfural is characterized by flammability, explosion and toxicity properties. Improper handling and process design can lead to catastrophic accidents. Hence it is of utmost importance to use inherent safety concepts during the design stage. This work is the first to present several new downstream separation processes for furfural purification, which are designed using an optimization approach that simultaneously considers safety criteria in addition to the total annual cost and the eco-indicator 99. The proposed schemes include: thermally coupled configuration, thermodynamic equivalent configuration, dividingwall column, and a heat integrated configuration. These are compared with the traditional separation process of furfural known as Quaker Oats Process. The results show that due to a large amount of water present in the feed, similar values are obtained for total annual cost and eco-indicator 99 in all cases. Moreover, the topology of the processes has an important role in the safety criteria, the thermodynamic equivalent configuration resulted as the safest alternative with a 40% of reduction of the inherent risk with respect to the Quaker Oats Process and thus it is the safest option to purify furfural.

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Economic and environmental optimization of the biobutanol purification process

Cited by 25 publications

References 21 publications

Optimally designed reactive distillation processes for eco‐efficient production of ethyl levulinate

Optimally designed reactive distillation processes for eco‐efficient production of ethyl levulinate

Optimal hybrid separations for intensified downstream processing of biobutanol

Inherently Safer Design and Optimization of Intensified Separation Processes for Furfural Production

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