Process design and techno‐economic analysis of ethyl levulinate production from carbon dioxide and 1,4‐butanediol as an alternative biofuel and fuel additive

Abstract

Summary Carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is one of the promising negative emission technologies (NET). Within various CCUS routes available, CO2 conversion into fuels is one of the attractive options. Currently, most of CO2 conversion into fuels requires hydrogen, which is expensive and consume large energy to produce. Hence, a different route of producing fuel from CO2 by utilizing 1,4‐butanediol as the raw material is proposed and evaluated in this study. This alternative route comprises production of levulinic acid from the reaction between CO2 and 1,4‐butanediol and production of ethyl levulinate, an alternative biofuel and biofuel additive, via an esterification reaction of levulinic acid with ethanol. The process is designed and simulated according to the available data and evaluated in terms of its technical features. Because of the unavailability of reaction data for synthesis of levulinic acid from 1,4‐butanediol and CO2, several assumptions were taken, which may implicate the accuracy of the studied design. This technical evaluation is followed by cost estimations and sensitivity analysis. Because of the free CO2, the profitability of the plant depends strongly on the prices of the other chemicals and the price difference between 1,4‐butanediol (raw material) and ethyl levulinate (product). Monte Carlo simulation indicates that the proposed plant will always be profitable if the ethyl levulinate is slightly more expensive than the 1,4‐butanediol, highlighting that the process of producing ethyl levulinate from CO2 is economically profitable. Future research should be directed towards a catalytic system that can effectively convert CO2 into levulinic acid, by‐products produced from the two reaction steps, and reduce the excess ethanol used in the second reaction.

Biosynthesis pathways of expanding carbon chains for producing advanced biofuels

“…This strategy has great potential for obtaining new metabolic pathways, however, it requires the identification of multitudinous enzymes. For example, based on RM, through reversely deducing and analyzing analogous molecular structure of the target product 1,4-butanediol, a comparative study was conducted via analyzing potential metabolic pathways [ 12 , 13 ]. An optimal engineering pathway in E. coli was designed using only four steps with Acetyl-CoA, α-ketoglutarate, glutamic acid, and succinyl Coenzyme A to achieve a maximum production of 18 g/L of 1,4-butanediol [ 13 ].…”

A highly carbon‐efficient and techno‐economically optimized process for the renewable‐assisted synthesis of gas to liquid fuels, ammonia, and urea products

“…CO 2 is utilized for the manufacturing of inorganic and organic compounds such as sodium bicarbonate 11 and salicylic acid. CO 2 is also used in the production of synthetic fuels 12,13 (like methane, methanol 14,15 and dimethyl ether (DME) 4,16 ). It can also be used directly in applications comprising welding medium, firefighting equipment, solvent, refrigerant, dry ice, and process fluid 17,18 …”

Creating membrane‐air‐liquid interface through a rough hierarchy structure for membrane gas absorption to remove CO 2

“…CO 2 is the main greenhouse gas that mainly contributes from human activities, especially the electricity generated by the combustion of fossil fuels. 1,2 Due to urbanization and industrialization, the CO 2 content in the earth's atmosphere is rising at an accelerating rate, causing the atmosphere to absorb more heat and leading to the greenhouse effect. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce CO 2 emissions, which can be accomplished through the use of membrane gas absorption (MGA) hybrid technology.…”