Process systems engineering studies for the synthesis of catalytic biomass-to-fuels strategies

Jeehoon Han, S. Murat Sen, Jeremy S. Luterbacher, David Martin Alonso, James A. Dumesic, Christos T. Maravelias

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to show how chemical process synthesis and analysis studies can be coupled with experimental heterogeneous catalysis studies to identify promising research directions for the development of strategies for the production of renewable fuels. We study five catalytic biomass-to-fuels strategies that rely on production of platform chemicals, such as levulinic acid and fermentable sugars. We first integrate catalytic conversion subsystems with separation subsystems to generate complete conversion strategies, and we then develop the corresponding process simulation models based on experimental results. Our analyses suggest that catalytic biomass-to-fuel conversion strategies could become economically competitive alternatives to current biofuel production approaches as a result of iterative experimental and computational efforts.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)57-69
Number of pages13
JournalComputers and Chemical Engineering
Volume81
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 5 2014
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Chemical Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications

Keywords

  • Heterogeneous catalysis
  • Lignocellulosic biofuels
  • Process synthesis
  • Technoeconomic evaluation

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