Abstract
The growing awareness to include sustainability goals in the chemical process design has been making palpable since many governments and research institutions have made many efforts precisely to progress new ways to transform available resources into valuable chemicals. In this sense, this work is presenting a computer-aided evaluation based on environmental impact assessment and comparison of technical parameters for estimating the potential effects of two biorefinery designs. The first process involved a multiproduct production of acetone, butanol, and ethanol from cassava waste, while the second biorefinery comprised of succinic acid and bioethanol production from a mixture of cassava waste and banana rachis. These residues are highly available in the North Colombia region due to the agroindustrial activities of that zone. The developed environmental analysis employed the waste reduction algorithm (WAR) for estimating impact generation and output rates considering atmospheric and toxicological categories. Otherwise, process simulation of biorefineries showed production of 546.3 kg/h of acetone, 280.0 kg/h of ethanol, and 1305 kg/h of butanol for topology 1, while topology 2 delivered a synthesis of 13,865.7 kg/h of acetic acid and 2277.9 kg/h of ethanol. Data generated from process simulation allowed performing a technical comparison between evaluated biorefineries, showing a higher performance of evaluated indicators for topology 2. These evaluated variables included resource energy efficiency, and production yield, among others. The environmental analysis provided relevant information, indicating that topology 2 is a better alternative from an ecological viewpoint since this design would emit substances with lower effects than topology 1.
Highlights
The cleaner production and resource conservation principles have emerged as obligated aspects that needed to be included in the design of new process technologies
One of the essential features of process simulation is that this tool can provide several data about the performance of a physical–chemical process, parting from property estimation, thermodynamic equilibria, modeling downstream processing, and generation of extended mass and energy balances, among others [62]
The waste reduction algorithm (WAR) through the WAR GUI software allows one to to evaluate three different energy sources, in this regard; this study chose gas as evaluate three different energy sources, in this regard; this study chose gas as the baseline energy source since previous investigations have addressed that natural gas generates the baseline energy source since previous investigations have addressed that natural gas generates less environmental impacts compared with the other two options [70]
Summary
The cleaner production and resource conservation principles have emerged as obligated aspects that needed to be included in the design of new process technologies. It is worth mentioning that since decades ago, the chemical industry has started changing its traditional conception in order to move into a more sustainable framework, considering the known effects derived from the use of fossil fuels and conventional technologies [1]. The above involved the change in the traditional conceptualization of a chemical process, aiming to progress novel ways that embody environmental impact mitigation, resource conservation, and inclusion of strategies to increase productivity [2]. Governmental institutions and scientists have identified that the development of new technologies based on sustainable design principles is a must in order to increase the efforts for mitigating the effects of the global economy into the biosphere [5]
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