With the growing interest in converting a wide variety of biomass-based
feedstocks to biofuels, there is a need to develop effective procedures for the design and
optimization of multi-feedstock biorefineries. The unifying goal of this work is the
development of systematic methodologies and procedures for designing flexible multifeedstock
biorefineries. This work addresses four problems that constitute building
blocks towards achieving the unifying goal of the dissertation.
The first problem addresses the design and techno-economic analysis of an
integrated system for the production of biodiesel from algal oil. With the sequestration
of carbon dioxide from power plant flue gases, algae growth and processing has the
potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Algae are a non-food oil feedstock source
and various pathways and technologies for obtaining algal oil were investigated.
Detailed economic and sensitivity analysis reveal specific scenarios that lead to
profitability of algal oil as an alternative feedstock. In the second problem, a new safety metric is introduced and utilized in process
design and selection. A case study was solved to assess the potential of producing
biodiesel from sewage sludge. The entire process was evaluated based on multiple
criteria including cost, technology and safety.
The third problem is concerned with incorporating flexibility in the design phase
of the development of multi-feedstock biofuel production processes. A mathematical
formulation is developed for determining the optimal flexible design for a biorefinery
that is to accommodate the use of multiple feedstocks. Various objective functions may
be utilized for the flexible plant depending on the purpose of the flexibility analysis and
a case study is presented to demonstrate one such objective function.
Finally, the development of a systematic procedure for incorporating flexibility
and heat integration in the design phase of a flexible feedstock production process is
introduced for the fourth problem. A mathematical formulation is developed for use in
determining the heat exchange network design. By incorporating the feedstock scenarios
under investigation, a mixed integer linear program is generated and a flexible heat
exchange network scheme can be developed. The solution provides for a network that
can accommodate the heating and cooling demands of the various scenarios while
meeting minimum utility targets.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2010-08-7938 |
| Date | 2010 August 1900 |
| Creators | Pokoo-Aikins, Grace Amarachukwu |
| Contributors | El-Halwagi, Mahmoud M. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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