Development of a bioprocess with high energy efficiency for the flexible production of butanol/ethanol integrated to a Kraft pulp mill

• Grant number: 15/07097-5
• Support type: Program for Research on Bioenergy (BIOEN) - Regular Program Grants
• Duration: July 01, 2015 - June 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Process Industries
• Principal Investigator: Adriano Pinto Mariano
• Grantee: Adriano Pinto Mariano
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Química (FEQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Rubens Maciel Filho ; Thaddeus Chukwuemeka Ezeji

Abstract

Following the current global evolution of the pulp industry, Brazilian eucalyptus pulp producers are interested in expanding their product portfolio and penetrate emerging markets of the bio-economy. Among an array of products, there is a special interest in biofuels and chemicals such butanol. Although modern pulp mills are energy exporters, high steam consumption and excessive stillage (vinasse) production can considerably decrease the attractiveness of projects with bioprocesses such as fermentation. The major issues are the investment needed to meet the new energy demands and limitation of the new process to a non-competitive production scale. Besides, attention must also be given to process flexibility and its key importance to business robustness in face of intrinsic market oscillations. In this manner, process integration, energy efficiency, and process flexibility are the issues to be tackled in this project.In this context, the aim of this project is the development of a bioprocess with high energy efficiency for the flexible production of butanol/ethanol integrated to a Kraft pulp mill. The main scientific challenge consists in developing a fermentation technology which is at the same time intensified and flexible (production of ethanol and of butanol). Not least important is the determination/assessment of integration strategies between the new process and a Kraft pulp mill so that both businesses benefit economically and environmentally from each other.Thus, based on a multidisciplinary approach, process systems engineering tools (computer simulation and techno-economic analysis) in association with laboratory-scale activities will serve the development of (i) a flexible bioprocess and (ii) the advanced fermentation technology - dubbed here as "flexible flash fermentation"- with integrated product recovery suitable for both ethanol and butanol fermentation. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ASSUMPCAO, DANIEL DE CASTRO; CCOPA RIVERA, ELMER ALBERTO; TOVAR, LAURA PLAZAS; EZEJI, THADDEUS CHUKWUEMEKA; MACIEL FILHO, RUBENS; MARIANO, ADRIANO PINTO. Resolving mismatches in the flexible production of ethanol and butanol from eucalyptus wood with vacuum fermentation. Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, v. 41, n. 11, p. 1651-1663, NOV 2018. Web of Science Citations: 2.

BRAZ, DANILO SILVA; MARIANO, ADRIANO PINTO. Jet fuel production in eucalyptus pulp mills: Economics and carbon footprint of ethanol vs. butanol pathway. Bioresource Technology, v. 268, p. 9-19, NOV 2018. Web of Science Citations: 4.

PEREIRA, GUILHERME C. Q.; BRAZ, DANILO S.; HAMAGUCHI, MARCELO; EZEJI, THADDEUS C.; MACIEL FILHO, RUBENS; MARIANO, ADRIANO P. Process design and economics of a flexible ethanol-butanol plant annexed to a eucalyptus kraft pulp mill. Bioresource Technology, v. 250, p. 345-354, FEB 2018. Web of Science Citations: 7.