Industrial risk estimation as a decision tool in an integrated microalgae biorefinery process

J. PINEDO; A. D´ALESSANDRO; C.V. GARCÍA PRIETO ; M.S. DÍAZ ; S. TONELLI ; R. IBÁÑEZ; Á. IRABIEN

Conferencia; 7th European Meeting on Chemical Industry and Environment; 2015

Biofuelsproduction has been increased during the last years to reduce fossil fueldemand. Microalgae for biodiesel production present several advantages to firstand second-generation biofuels; however, there are some drawbacks to be overcome.The process sustainability must encompass economic, social and environmentalimpacts, being necessary to reduce production process costs by processoptimization, but also analyzing potential accidents that may be affect humanhealth and the ecosystem. The aim of this work is the estimation of risks thatmay be produced in an integrated biodiesel production plant with microalgae,contributing to more suitable and safe processes. The biorefinery is optimizedconsidering two technological alternatives for lipid extraction. Furthermore, arisk analysis is performed, considering different accident scenarios andformulating event trees for each initial event to estimate consequences andfrequencies. The resulting incidents studied are pool fire, explosion, flashfire and toxic release. The obtained results show that, if considering onlyenergy aspects, direct ethanol-hexane for lipid extraction is the best option.However, the usage of huge quantities of hazardous substances produces higherindustrial risks, which must be considered in the future decision-making