INVESTIGADORES
DIAZ Maria Soledad
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
A Mathematical Model for a Biofuel Production Process From Macroalgae
Autor/es:
CLAUDIO A. DELPINO; VANINA G. ESTRADA; MARIA SOLEDAD DIAZ
Lugar:
Pittsburgh
Reunión:
Congreso; AIChE Annual Meeting 2012; 2012
Institución organizadora:
AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers)
Resumen:
In this paper, we review published data and past efforts towards the production of ethanol using macroalgae as
raw materials. When analyzing macroalgae biomass as a source of polysaccharides, which can be directly
fermented by special organisms or hydrolized into simple sugars that are fermentable by well known ethanol
producing, a key fact to have into account is the absence of lignin. In the group known as "brown" algae, these
polysaccharides are represented by storage molecules like laminarin and mannitol, and alginates and cellulose,
which conform the amorphous and fibrillar part of the cell wall, respectively. When it comes to the so called
"red" algae, the fermentable polysaccharides include cellulose and galactans (which are nowadays used for agar
production), which could amount to higher ethanol yields. A biorefinery scheme is proposed and mathematically
modeled based on published data and efforts from other sources ([1], [2], [3]). The proposed biorefinery main
route includes cultivation, harvesting and processing of macroalgae. Cultivation can be carried out in offshore or
nearshore ?farms? for which several technologies have been proposed, or in onshore installations, which offer
an easier and more precise control of the cultivation, with higher yields, at the expense of higher capital and
operating costs. Processing of macroalgae includes succesive acid and enzymatic hydrolisis of polysaccharides
and their posterior fermentation.
We formulate a mathematical model for integrated macroalgal-based biorefineries, allowing for cost, energy and
water need calculations. The model also includes the possibility to allow for several macroalgae species and
origins, diverse processing routes, and several products and by-products. This allows comparison of the different
alternatives, and optimization of the economical and energetic performance of the process using mathematical
programming techniques. The optimization framework is specially useful for the macroalgae context, where the
integration with current algal high-value products facilities, or even the production of this high-value byproducts
(i. e. agar) in the integrated biorefinery, is essential for the process economic sustainability. The model has been
implemented in GAMS as a Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming problem. Numerical results provide
quantitative information and give useful insights on macroalgal-based biorefineries. At the same time, the local
potential for a given processing environment can be easily evaluated. We accomplish these for several options within Argentina.