Hydrothermal treatment of vinasse
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
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Author
Date
2017-12-11
Department
Major/Subject
Energy Technology
Mcode
K3007
Degree programme
Master’s Programme in Energy Technology (EEN)
Language
en
Pages
66+10
Series
Abstract
Vinasse is a by-product obtained from the distillation of ethanol from molasses from sugarcane. Due to its characteristics, such as high organic and moisture content, it is a potential source for fuel production. The thesis presents a techno-economic assessment for supercritical water gasification of the vinasse for the production of liquid fuels. The main goals of this work are the process modeling of a complete plant layout on Aspen Plus for supercritical water gasification of vinasse and the evaluation of the economic feasibility and profitability of the process compared to other bio-fuels plants. The process includes four main process blocks: supercritical water gasification, gas cleaning, Fischer-Tropsch process and Product separation. Different scenarios were considered to optimize the heat exchanger network of the plant. The feasibility of the process was then evaluated in terms of thermal efficiency and minimum selling price of the products. The plant recorded a minimum selling price of 360 euro per MWh with a carbon recovery of ~14% in the product and a thermal efficiency of ~21%. What emerges from the study is that the process is energetically self sufficient, although it is not economically feasible due to the high production costs.Description
Supervisor
Järvinen, MikaThesis advisor
De Blasio, CataldoMagdeldin, Mohamed
Keywords
vinasse, supercritical water gasification, Fischer-Tropsch, fractionation, techno-economic assessment
