Romero-Perez Juan C, Vergara Leidy, González-Delgado Ángel Darío
Chemical Engineering Department, Nanomaterials and Computer-Aided Process Engineering Research Group (NIPAC), University of Cartagena, Avenida del Consulado Calle 30 No. 48-152, Cartagena 130015, Colombia.
ACS Omega. 2021 Feb 23;6(9):6112-6123. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c04782. eCollection 2021 Mar 9.
Colombia is experiencing significant growth in its agricultural areas, its diverse production chains make the country an excellent candidate in the development of biorefineries, and as a result, there is an increasing need to take full advantage of biomass and obtain high value-added by-products from waste. In this sense, biorefineries are presented as a great alternative for the use of biomass; however, the methodologies of biorefinery synthesis lack a parameter that limits the growth of production lines under incremental exergetic and economic returns. This research develops a biorefinery synthesis methodology using an African palm biorefinery as a case study; a novel approach is developed to facilitate a stop criterion for biorefinery expansion through a combined consideration of economic incremental returns (IROI) and exegetical returns of investment (ExROI), avoiding unnecessary plant expansions or new processes that are not profitable or adequate in terms of useful energy. The development of this methodology required simulations in Aspen Plus software and technical-economic and exergetic evaluation with an incremental approach of four scenarios in Excel. The base case is palm oil production from African palm clusters. The second case includes the production of palm kernel oil and palm cake from residues. The third case implements the production of hydrogen based on other residues from the base case. The last case study incorporates the preceding case and the addition of biodiesel and glycerin production from palm oil. Case 3 exhibits a higher economic performance with an IROI of 42.98%; in terms of exergy, case 2 exhibits considerable improvements over the base case, with an ExROI of 158%. A parameter called the exergo-economic weighted incremental return on investment (IExWROI) was obtained, evidencing a 75% improvement in case 2 compared to the base case. The new indicator aims to provide a more comprehensive approach to biorefinery design by optimization of economic and exergetic returns, contributing a new alternative for decision-making in regard to plant design, plant expansion projects, and implementation of subprocesses.
哥伦比亚的农业领域正在经历显著增长，其多样的生产链使该国成为生物精炼厂发展的理想候选地，因此，充分利用生物质并从废弃物中获取高附加值副产品的需求日益增加。从这个意义上讲，生物精炼厂是利用生物质的绝佳选择；然而，生物精炼厂合成方法缺乏一个参数来限制生产线在增量有效能和经济回报情况下的增长。本研究以非洲棕榈生物精炼厂为案例研究，开发了一种生物精炼厂合成方法；通过综合考虑经济增量回报（IROI）和投资的有效能回报（ExROI），开发了一种新颖的方法来促进生物精炼厂扩张的停止标准，避免不必要的工厂扩建或新流程，这些新流程在有用能量方面无利可图或不合适。该方法的开发需要在Aspen Plus软件中进行模拟，并在Excel中采用增量方法对四种情景进行技术经济和有效能评估。基础案例是来自非洲棕榈种植园的棕榈油生产。第二个案例包括从残渣中生产棕榈仁油和棕榈饼。第三个案例基于基础案例的其他残渣实施氢气生产。最后一个案例研究纳入了前一个案例，并增加了从棕榈油生产生物柴油和甘油。案例3表现出更高的经济性能，IROI为42.98%；在有效能方面，案例2比基础案例有显著改善，ExROI为158%。获得了一个名为有效能 - 经济加权增量投资回报率（IExWROI）的参数，表明案例2与基础案例相比有75%的改善。新指标旨在通过优化经济和有效能回报为生物精炼厂设计提供更全面的方法，为工厂设计、工厂扩建项目和子流程实施的决策提供新的选择。
