Synthesis, Design, and Rigorous Simulation of the Bioethanol Recovery and Dehydration from an Actual Lignocellulosic Fermentation Broth

• Published in: Industrial & engineering chemistry research 2016-01, Vol.55 (1), p.210-225
• Main Authors: Torres-Ortega, Carlo Edgar, Rong, Ben-Guang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0888-5885; 1520-5045
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b02773

This work presents the synthesis, design, and simulation of bioethanol separation processes for the actual fermentation broth of a hybrid lignocellulosic feedstock. Different recovery and dehydration alternatives as well as their integrations were explored. For the recovery section, different sequences and technologies were considered and evaluated based on lumped-product streams for the multiphase and multicomponent crude broth: gases, preconcentrated bioethanol, stillage, and solids. For the dehydration section, different purification technologies were configured and analyzed. The synthesized alternatives were compared with the NREL reference case based on the total annual costs (TAC). Among the different recovery scenarios, one new alternative achieved 7% saving on TAC together with a higher concentrated bioethanol stream of 90 wt %. Regarding the dehydration section, extractive distillation together with gas stripping for glycerol recovery was evaluated as the optimal design with 46.2% saving on TAC. The optimal integrated separation process achieved 13.9% saving on TAC with respect the reference case.