Abstract
Global energetic and environmental crises have attracted worldwide attention in recent years. Biomass is an important direction of development for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and replacing fossil fuel. As downstream products of biomass, some industrially valuable polyols are costly to separate via conventional distillation due to their near volatility. The use of fully heat-integrated divided wall columns (DWCs), which carry energy and equipment investment savings, is a promising technique for purifying biopolyol products. However, the design of DWCs is complex because of the greater freedom of units, so the optimization of all variables is essential to minimize the cost of separation. A response surface methodology (RSM)-based Box–Behnken design (BBD) was proposed and applied to study the interactions between groups of factors and the effects of variables on total annual cost (TAC) savings. The optimization of global variables with RSM was confirmed to be a powerful and reliable method, and the TAC savings reached 41.09% compared to conventional distillation. In short, efficient design, lower costs and energy savings for polyol separation will promote the wide application of environmentally friendly biopolyol.
Highlights
With global efforts to reduce emissions and the increasing depletion of fossil fuels, more attention has been paid to producing fuels from biomass
A conventional two-column distillation sequence was designed from the conceptual stage to rigorous simulation through Aspen Plus, and the feed locations, tray numbers and reflux ratio were optimized based on the minimum total annual cost (TAC)
The results of both designs are shown in table 3, and the TAC savings were calculated according to equation (3.1)
Summary
With global efforts to reduce emissions and the increasing depletion of fossil fuels, more attention has been paid to producing fuels from biomass. The production of crude glycerol from biodiesel has increased dramatically in the past decade worldwide, increasing from 52 million kg in 2016 to 295 million kg in 2018 [4]. This by-product glycerol from biodiesel production has led to a substantial surplus in glycerol supply and caused a significant drop in price for both crude and purified glycerol in the past years [5]. The economically valuable usage of this biomass co-product can be achieved via the chemical route of glycerol hydrogenolysis.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
