Meramo-Hurtado Samir I, Puello Plinio, Cabarcas Amaury
Bussines Management and Productivity Research Group, Industrial Engineering Program, Fundación Universitaria Colombo International, Av. Pedro Heredia Sector Cuatro Vientos #31-50, Cartagena 130001, Colombia.
Research Group in Information Technologies, Entrepreneurship, and Society (GITICES), Department of Systems Engineering Program, University of Cartagena, 30th Street #39b-192. Cartagena 130001, Colombia.
ACS Omega. 2020 Jul 30;5(31):19667-19681. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c02344. eCollection 2020 Aug 11.
The growing awareness to advance new ways to transform renewable materials for producing clean fuels, under technical and sustainable viability, is evident. In this regard, hydrogen arises as one of the cleanest and energetic biofuels in the market. This work addresses the modeling and evaluation of a biomass gasification topology employing process simulation along with an environmental and inherent safety analysis. The presented pathway considered two renewable raw materials (cassava and rice waste) based on their vast availability in north Colombia regions. We employed Aspen Plus process simulation software to model the process, setting biomasses (and ash content) as nonconventional solids in the software and inclusion of FORTRAN subroutines for handling solid properties. Otherwise, the environmental evaluation was performed applying the waste reduction algorithm (WAR). At the same time, safety assessment involves a comprehensive approach based on the inherent safety index (ISI) and the process route index (PRI) methods. Data generated from the implementation of rigorous process simulation of biomass gasification allowed us to determine the needed aspect for performing process analysis methodologies. Results revealed that this topology generates a total flow of 3944.51 kg/h with more than 97% vol of H, from the sustainable use of 19,243 kg/h of cassava waste and 15,000 kg/h of rice straw. From the environmental viewpoint, the process showed moderately to a high overall rate of potential environmental impacts (PEIs), with a higher contribution from process sources than energy sources. It indicates that most of the generated impacts would come from self-operation than from the energy supply generation. In the case of process safety, the topology obtained an ISI score of 35, which represents that modeled gasification would operate below 50% of the expected neutral standard for a physical-chemical process. Complementing the safety evaluation, the obtained PRI suggests that compared to other processes, the analyzed topology shows relatively adequate performance considering the nature of this type of process.
显然，人们越来越意识到需要探索新方法，在技术和可持续可行性的前提下，将可再生材料转化为清洁燃料。在这方面，氢气成为市场上最清洁、能量最高的生物燃料之一。本文通过过程模拟以及环境和固有安全性分析，对生物质气化拓扑结构进行建模和评估。所提出的路径基于哥伦比亚北部地区大量可得的两种可再生原材料（木薯和稻壳）。我们使用Aspen Plus过程模拟软件对该过程进行建模，将生物质（以及灰分含量）设置为软件中的非常规固体，并包含用于处理固体性质的FORTRAN子程序。此外，应用废弃物减量算法（WAR）进行环境评估。同时，安全评估采用基于固有安全指数（ISI）和过程路线指数（PRI）方法的综合方法。生物质气化严格过程模拟实施所产生的数据，使我们能够确定进行过程分析方法所需的方面。结果表明，通过可持续利用19243千克/小时的木薯废弃物和15000千克/小时的稻草，该拓扑结构产生的总流量为3944.51千克/小时，氢气含量超过97%（体积）。从环境角度来看，该过程显示出中等至高的潜在环境影响总体发生率（PEIs），过程源的贡献高于能源源。这表明产生的大部分影响将来自自身运行而非能源供应产生。在过程安全方面，该拓扑结构的ISI得分为35，这表明模拟的气化过程将在物理化学过程预期中性标准的50%以下运行。作为安全评估的补充，获得的PRI表明，与其他过程相比，考虑到这类过程的性质，所分析的拓扑结构表现相对良好。
