Techno-economic analysis of a succinic acid biorefinery coproducing acetic acid and dimethyl ether
- Authors: Ghayur, Adeel , Verheyen, Vincent , Meuleman, Erik
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Cleaner Production Vol. 230, no. (2019), p. 1165-1175
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- Description: The production of platform chemicals via carbon negative technologies will play an important role in global efforts to mitigate climate change. Succinic acid biorefineries are commercially mature carbon negative technologies that are plagued with large waste streams in the form of hemicellulose and gypsum. Here, a techno-economic analysis assesses the viability of a succinic acid biorefinery wherein hemicellulose is converted to acetic acid and dimethyl ether, and gypsum generation is avoided. Succinic acid is a feedstock for biodegradable plastics, acetic acid replaces petroleum-derived sources, and dimethyl ether is ideally suited as an energy storage vector. Our novel biorefinery concept presents an innovative integration of commercial technologies including water-splitting bipolar membrane electrodialysis for acid purification. The modelled multiproduct biorefinery (Multi Case)annually consumes 650,000 metric tonnes (t)of pulp logs, 135,000t of methanol, 1,700,000t of water, 42,000t of CO2 and 89 MW of electricity to produce 220,000t of succinic acid, 115,000t of acetic acid and 900t of dimethyl ether. All the parasitic electricity and heat duties are fulfilled within the biorefinery. Results show a CAPEX of AUD $635,000,000, OPEX of $180,000,000 and a succinic acid Minimum Selling Price of $990/t. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses of the Multi Case biorefinery model show it is also resilient to price fluctuations.
Treatment of flue-gas impurities for liquid absorbent-based post-combustion CO2 capture processes
- Authors: Meuleman, Erik , Cottrell, Aaron , Ghayur, Adeel
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Absorption-Based Post-Combustion Capture of Carbon Dioxide Chapter 22 p. 519-551
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- Description: This chapter discusses the importance of flue-gas treatment and the effect of its impurities on post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) process performance. Important consequences of nonoptimized flue-gas treatment include atmospheric emissions, amine degradation, extra maintenance requirements through corrosion or fly ash deposition, and waste handling. Each of these areas is strongly dependent on the others. We briefly describe existing flue-gas separation technologies and compare them to the requirements of PCC. Further pretreatment technologies are suggested to improve the composition and thereby the properties of the flue gas entering the PCC plant. For optimal plant operation, the overall process from boiler to atmosphere and waste needs to be analyzed holistically, because: certain approaches can increase efficiency when treating multiple contaminants compared with treating each component separately;most "cleaning" steps influence or generate other compounds that could reduce the performance of the process chain;all costs associated with the treatment chain increase production costs, with little or no increase in value. © 2016 Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.