Synthesis and Analysis of Integrated Process Schemes for Sugarcane Conversion

GONZALEZ CORTES, MEYLIN; CORSANO, GABRIELA; AGUIRRE, PIO A.; ALBERNAS CARVAJAL, YAILET

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; 2nd RCN Conference on Pan American Biofuels & Bioenergy Sustainability; 2016

AIChE

In this paper it is carried out the synthesis and analysis of technological schemes for sugar and derivative process integration. Several technological process such as first and second generation ethanol, torula yeast, furfural, lignin and CO2 are considered in the analysis. Sugar cane is the principal raw matter; parameters such as price of the products in the market are considered. Process simulations in ASPEN PLUS were performed to evaluate mass and energy balances and evaluate 6 sceneries with variations in products price, plants outside of operation, scenario for time of no harvest, among other parameters.Some improvements are proposed, including process thermal integration, adopting the pre-treatment of sugarcane bagasse by steam explosion, and including an integrated cogeneration system. It was assumed that sugarcane trash and lignin cake, a hydrolysis residue, are available as supplementary fuel.The exergies of streams involved in the process were calculated, along with their exergetic cost. For the conventional process, in which ethanol and surplus electricity are the major products, a second-law efficiency of 28% was found. In the integrated process, with furfural, CO2 and lignin as an additional product, a higher performance in resources management was achieved, with values in the range of 35 -37% .