Ecological Glue – Towards a Sustainable Industry?

摘要

The introduction of a new generation of biorefineries into the market presents a multi complex problem, where questions like environmental sustainability, economic feasibility and conceptual exploration need to be answered beforehand. The biorefineries of the second generation need to tackle the objective of how chemicals can be produced from biomass, and not compete with the food production. Lignocellulosic biomass presents a raw material with a high potential to replace corn or sugarcane. Innovative production routes from wood to chemicals have to be included within the biorefinery concept. The quest of finding the optimal biorefinery concept is becoming even more complex by considering besides the conventional also innovative processes for the production of chemicals. The approach for finding the optimal concept is that generic optimization algorithm, developed by EPFL in Lausanne, is able to integrate different processes in order to find a bio refinery concept under the objective of profit maximization and environmental impact minimization. A major part of the research project is the modelling of the different production paths to produce either platform chemicals (e.g. Glucose, Ethylene, Succinic acid) or high value added chemicals (Polyurethanes, Polyesters, Vinyl polymers). For the production routes conventional concepts as well as innovative concepts are considered for finding the optimal production routes. The concepts are evaluated through environmental indicators (Global Warming Potential, Ecoindicator 99, Cumulative Energy Demand) and economic indicators (Profit, Operational costs, Investment cost).