Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Large scale, sustainable production of biofuels will require commercialization of\nprocesses using lignocellulosic feedstocks. These processes are still not\ncompetitive with existing pathways, however. The competitiveness of\nlignocellulosic biofuel production plants could potentially be improved if they\nwere integrated with already existing facilities. One such example being explored\ncurrently is connected to the fact that the pulping industry is showing a growing\ninterest in expanding their product portfolio, namely the complete or partial\nconversion of pulp mills into biorefineries for production of transport fuels.\nThe objective of the work presented in this thesis has been to study different\npotential biorefinery concepts connected to chemical pulping, and more\nspecifically the Kraft pulping process. Three different process combinations have\nbeen assessed in the project; a process where a Kraft pulp mill is repurposed to\nethanol production (no pulp is produced), a process where ethanol and dimethyl-\nether is produced in a repurposed Kraft pulp mill, and finally a process\nwhere an ethanol plant is co-located with a modern Kraft pulp mill.\nThe findings from the studies reveal that an increasing degree of heat integration\nleads to a lower production cost of ethanol both if the ethanol plant is based on a\nrepurposed mill and if the plant is co-located with a modern mill. In the ethanoland\ndi-methyl-ether process, which has much higher conversion efficiency from\nfeedstock to biofuel than the other processes, it was shown that the process could\nbe competitive with the other combinations in terms of production cost, if the\nbiofuel price is high and if the biorefinery is perceived as a low risk investment.
Author: Rickard Fornell
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2165392567