Title:
Modeling a Biorefinery System Consisting of Water Hyacinth Pretreatment Integrated with Supercritical Water Gasification
Author(s):
Hongsiri, W., de Jong, W.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Water Hyacinth is a plant species abundantly available in some tropical countries like Thailand. A biorefinery concept is worked out consisting of wet biomass pretreatment integrated with supercritical water gasification. Aspen PlusTM process modeling software is used to model this system. The plant species is a very attractive substrate for production of green platform chemicals and biofuels(s) because of its extremely low cost and their huge potential growth in fresh water. In this system modeling study, furfural and fuel-gas (hydrogen and methane) yield from water hyacinth were evaluated. The biorefinery was designed for 10 ton/hr wet feedstock to the process at approximately 85% moisture content with 15% dry matter. The pretreatment process conditions were designed at a temperature of up to 180 ºC using dilute sulfuric acid 1 %wt as catalyst. These pretreatment conditions produce a C5 sugars, mostly D-xylose, and a solid residue of mainly protein, cellulose and lignin. The C5 sugars are further catalytically dehydrated to furfural. The residues from this pretreatment process are used as feedstock for the supercritical water gasification reactor (SCWG). The SCWG process conditions were designed at a temperature of 600 ºC and at a pressure of 250 atm. The model results indicated that at given input conditions approximately 280 kg/h of furfural can be produced in the pretreatment unit and about 93 kg/h hydrogen rich product gas, which can be obtain from downstream gas separation.
Keywords:
biorefinery, system model, wet biomass
Topic:
Biomass Conversion Technologies for Heating, Electricity and Chemicals
Subtopic:
Biorefineries
Event:
19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
VP2.7.26
Pages:
1821 - 1827
ISBN-13:
978-88-89407-55-4
ISBN-10:
88-89407-55-7
Paper DOI:
10.5071/19thEUBCE2011-VP2.7.26
Price:
FREE
