Use of Environmental and Thermodynamic Indicators to Assess the Performance of an Integrated Process for Ethanol Production

Nogueira, Alex Rodrigues; Donke, A. C. G.; Matsuura, Marília I. S. Folegatti; Matai, Patrícia Helena Lara dos Santos; Kulay, Luiz

doi:10.5539/enrr.v4n4p59

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Wet route juice extraction (imbibing 46%) provides bagasse. Prior to fermentation, the sugar juice is heated and purified in a rotating filter (which generates filter cake), and concentrated in set of evaporators of indirect contact [33].…”

Section: Agricultural Process Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamic and Environmental Analysis of Scaling up Cogeneration Units Driven by Sugarcane Biomass to Enhance Power Exports

et al. 2018

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When manual harvesting of sugarcane was discontinued in many regions of Brazil, interest in power generation by burning the bagasse and straw in cogeneration units rose. Exergy analysis is often applied to increase the thermodynamic yield of these plants by identifying irreversibility and work availability. Conversely, pressure for adopting clean energy requires these systems to be evaluated for suitable environmental performance. This study identified and discussed the thermodynamic and environmental effects of scaling up systems that operate according Rankine cycle with reheating. Ten scenarios have been designed considering different levels of steam pressure and addition rates of straw remaining in the sugarcane cultivation. The thermodynamic analysis revealed a 37% improvement in the exergy efficiency and 63% of increasing in power generation to raise the steam pressure from 20 to 100 bar. Moreover, the use of 50% of residual straw into units operating at 100 bar can more than double the amount of electricity exported. If addressed considering a life cycle perspective, the use of straw improves the environmental performance of the cogeneration for Climate Change and Particle Matter Formation but provides additional impacts in terms of Water and Fossil resources depletions.

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Section: Agricultural Process Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamic and Environmental Analysis of Scaling up Cogeneration Units Driven by Sugarcane Biomass to Enhance Power Exports

et al. 2018

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“…However, when looking at the primary energy source used, there is a relevant difference between ethanol production from corn and sugarcane. While sugarcane distilleries burn the bagasse obtained as the ethanol is produced, corn ethanol distilleries need to use external fuel sources such as fossil fuels for biomass, increasing their operating costs [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 Defined as 90% of the cumulative frequency distribution of the hourly non-null irradiance3 Annual mean4 At noon…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exergy and Economic Assessment of a Hybrid Solar-Biomass Cogeneration Plant Applied to the Corn Ethanol Industry

Oliveira

Burin

Bazzo

2023

Preprint

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The present work comprises the thermodynamic and economic performance analysis of a hybrid (solar thermal and biomass) cogeneration cycle applied to a 292.000 m3/year corn ethanol distillery. These analyses aim to assess the technic and economic feasibility of the proposed distillery for its operation in Phoenix (USA) and Barreiras (BRA). A biomass boiler is used parallel with a direct steam generation parabolic trough solar field to produce together the distillery's fixed steam requirement. In this scheme, the solar field is responsible for up to 60% of the produced steam. The study evaluates energy and exergy indexes, for the solar field's design conditions and typical meteorological years, and calculates the net present value for economic evaluation. Annually, the proposed hybrid cycle design achieved biomass savings of 14% in Phoenix and 12% in Barreiras compared to a standard boiler cycle. For both locations, the steam generation processes account for more than 90% of the exergy destruction in the plant. These results show the technical feasibility of the hybrid solution for both locations, with Phoenix performing better due to larger solar resource availability. Furthermore, by finding negative net present values, the economic analysis indicates that the proposed integration is not yet economically feasible.

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“…Como continuação deste trabalho, poderiam ser estudados os desempenhos ambientais e energéticos da integração dos três processos em uma mesma planta, que possa operar de forma contínua ao longo do ano, sem paradas de entressafras, tal qual estudado por Donke et al (2013), Nogueira et al (2014) e Milanez et al (2014). A integração de processos permite a otimizações sob os pontos de vista energético e ambiental, conforme discutido nos capítulos anteriores.…”

Section: Comparação Geralunclassified

Avaliação de desempenho ambiental e energético da produção de etanol de cana, milho e sorgo em uma unidade integrada, segundo a abordagem do ciclo de vida

Donke¹

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Ethanol is consolidated as fuel to drive light vehicles in Brazil, but for the past 40 years, only the cultivation of sugarcane has been commercially exploited for the production of this fuel. On the other hand, agricultural development has provided high yields of grain in recent decades. Corn production is distinguished by increased productivity, and can be sown as main crop or as a winter crop in rotation with soybeans. Sorghum, in turn, has a higher roughness and tolerance to drought and can act as a substitute for corn. Given this situation, ethanol plants in Mato Grosso were associated with corn and sorghum producers to include new raw materials in the fuel production process, sharing the same plant, called Integrated Plant or Plant Flex. However, the development of new technology and production sectors requires consideration of its potential energy and environmental implications. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is management tool used to evaluate potential environmental impacts associated with products, processes and services. Its main feature is to provide such an assessment in a systematic way, taking into account all stages of their life cycle. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the environmental and energy performance of ethanol production from sugarcane, corn and sorghum in the context of integrated autonomous plant, according to the life cycle approach. For that, LCA studies were conducted for each of the three products, following the guidelines of the standards ISO 14040: 2009 and ISO 14044: 2009. For environmental analysis the method of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) Recipe midpoint was applied and for energy analysis Cumulative Energy Demand method was used, followed by the estimate of the Energy Return On Investment (EROI) for each fuel. The functional unit of the studies was 1 m³ of hydrous ethanol and the product system includes the production inputs, production of agricultural raw material, production of ethanol, cogeneration and transport stages. The results of the environmental analysis showed that the ethanol sugarcane performs better than the ethanol maize and sorghum in a greater number of impact categories. Energy analyzes have shown that the use of wood chips in cogeneration stage of corn ethanol production processes and sorghum has resulted in energy savings, but the ethanol sugarcane still performs better by using bagasse for cogeneration. In terms of EROI, the sugarcane ethanol provided 9.77 units of energy for every unit consumed, corn ethanol provided 2.68 and sorghum ethanol provided 3.10.

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Use of Environmental and Thermodynamic Indicators to Assess the Performance of an Integrated Process for Ethanol Production

Cited by 6 publications

References 29 publications

Thermodynamic and Environmental Analysis of Scaling up Cogeneration Units Driven by Sugarcane Biomass to Enhance Power Exports

Thermodynamic and Environmental Analysis of Scaling up Cogeneration Units Driven by Sugarcane Biomass to Enhance Power Exports

Exergy and Economic Assessment of a Hybrid Solar-Biomass Cogeneration Plant Applied to the Corn Ethanol Industry

Avaliação de desempenho ambiental e energético da produção de etanol de cana, milho e sorgo em uma unidade integrada, segundo a abordagem do ciclo de vida

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