Integration of hydroprocessing modeling of bio-liquids into flowsheeting design tools for biofuels production

摘要

Aim of this paper is to present an engineering tool for the design and modeling of the upgrading of three biomass derived liquids (bio-oil, vegetable oil and algal oil) through hydrotreating process for the production of advanced biofuels. For each case, the appropriate approach was followed regarding the model compound selection for each bio-feedstock, the main reactor modeling, the products separation and purification and the make-up hydrogen production. Simulation runs were performed in ASPEN Plus (TM) and revealed the importance for make-up H-2 production from recovered light gases and external fuel such as natural gas (the heat content on LHV basis if the inlet natural gas is 7.4% of the produced fuel in the jatropha oil case), showing also the beneficial impact of a good catalyst. The energy"balance calculations showed that the most energy demanding components are the air compressor before reformer and make-up H-2 compressor at the hydrogen production plant. The assumption of a chemical equilibrium can be regarded as a well-fitting and valid approach for the process design. The representation of bio-liquid by a model compound (Le. palmitic acid in case of algal oil) may result in good estimations in terms of mass (0.845 Kg(G-Diesael)/Kg(algal.oil) product yield) and heat balance of the total process (94.9% thermal efficiency) but all the detected fatty acid is suggested be taken into account for a more detailed analysis.