IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v241y2019icp491-503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Utilizing stillage in the biorefinery: Economic, technological and energetic analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Ng, Rex T.L.
  • Fasahati, Peyman
  • Huang, Kefeng
  • Maravelias, Christos T.

Abstract

The goal of this study is to evaluate the economics and energy efficiency of different biorefinery configurations which include stillage valorization strategies for bioproducts synthesis. Specifically, a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is developed to identify the optimal process network, and the impact of various parameters (e.g., bioproduct selling price, production cost, and energy requirement) on the performance of the biorefinery is investigated. Results show that the optimal strategy leading to a minimum ethanol selling price of $3.44/GGE includes γ-valerolactone deconstruction, glucose and xylose co-fermentation, heat and power generation, and does not include stillage valorization. Economic analyses indicate that the stillage valorization becomes economically viable at bioproduct selling prices above $2.0/kg for a base unit production cost and conversion coefficient of $2.0/kg bioproduct and 0.3 kg bioproduct/kg sugars, respectively. Further studies suggest that under certain scenarios, the biorefinery does not generate sufficient energy if all stillage is utilized for bioproducts production. Therefore, the utilization of stillage has to be optimized in order to achieve an energy self-sufficient biorefinery. Finally, analyses are performed to study how improvements in combinations of parameters can lead to lower cost and higher energy efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Ng, Rex T.L. & Fasahati, Peyman & Huang, Kefeng & Maravelias, Christos T., 2019. "Utilizing stillage in the biorefinery: Economic, technological and energetic analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C), pages 491-503.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:241:y:2019:i:c:p:491-503
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.03.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919304118
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.03.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grootscholten, T.I.M. & Strik, D.P.B.T.B. & Steinbusch, K.J.J. & Buisman, C.J.N. & Hamelers, H.V.M., 2014. "Two-stage medium chain fatty acid (MCFA) production from municipal solid waste and ethanol," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 223-229.
    2. Floor van der Hilst, 2018. "Location, location, location," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(3), pages 164-165, March.
    3. Fasahati, Peyman & Liu, J. Jay, 2015. "Economic, energy, and environmental impacts of alcohol dehydration technology on biofuel production from brown algae," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P2), pages 2321-2336.
    4. Shen, Ruixia & Jiang, Yong & Ge, Zheng & Lu, Jianwen & Zhang, Yuanhui & Liu, Zhidan & Ren, Zhiyong Jason, 2018. "Microbial electrolysis treatment of post-hydrothermal liquefaction wastewater with hydrogen generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 509-515.
    5. Pandey, Prashant & Shinde, Vikas N. & Deopurkar, Rajendra L. & Kale, Sharad P. & Patil, Sunil A. & Pant, Deepak, 2016. "Recent advances in the use of different substrates in microbial fuel cells toward wastewater treatment and simultaneous energy recovery," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 706-723.
    6. Ng, Rex T.L. & Maravelias, Christos T., 2017. "Economic and energetic analysis of biofuel supply chains," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1571-1582.
    7. Parajuli, Ranjan & Dalgaard, Tommy & Jørgensen, Uffe & Adamsen, Anders Peter S. & Knudsen, Marie Trydeman & Birkved, Morten & Gylling, Morten & Schjørring, Jan Kofod, 2015. "Biorefining in the prevailing energy and materials crisis: a review of sustainable pathways for biorefinery value chains and sustainability assessment methodologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 244-263.
    8. Lauer, Markus & Hansen, Jason K. & Lamers, Patrick & Thrän, Daniela, 2018. "Making money from waste: The economic viability of producing biogas and biomethane in the Idaho dairy industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 621-636.
    9. Ng, Rex T.L. & Kurniawan, Daniel & Wang, Hua & Mariska, Brian & Wu, Wenzhao & Maravelias, Christos T., 2018. "Integrated framework for designing spatially explicit biofuel supply chains," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 116-131.
    10. Peduzzi, Emanuela & Tock, Laurence & Boissonnet, Guillaume & Maréchal, François, 2013. "Thermo-economic evaluation and optimization of the thermo-chemical conversion of biomass into methanol," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 9-16.
    11. Huang, Kefeng & Won, Wangyun & Barnett, Kevin J. & Brentzel, Zachary J. & Alonso, David M. & Huber, George W. & Dumesic, James A. & Maravelias, Christos T., 2018. "Improving economics of lignocellulosic biofuels: An integrated strategy for coproducing 1,5-pentanediol and ethanol," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 585-594.
    12. Budzianowski, Wojciech M. & Postawa, Karol, 2016. "Total Chain Integration of sustainable biorefinery systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1432-1446.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Harahap, Fumi & Leduc, Sylvain & Mesfun, Sennai & Khatiwada, Dilip & Kraxner, Florian & Silveira, Semida, 2020. "Meeting the bioenergy targets from palm oil based biorefineries: An optimal configuration in Indonesia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    2. Usmani, Zeba & Sharma, Minaxi & Karpichev, Yevgen & Pandey, Ashok & Chander Kuhad, Ramesh & Bhat, Rajeev & Punia, Rajesh & Aghbashlo, Mortaza & Tabatabaei, Meisam & Gupta, Vijai Kumar, 2020. "Advancement in valorization technologies to improve utilization of bio-based waste in bioeconomy context," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Geissler, Caleb H. & Maravelias, Christos T., 2021. "Economic, energetic, and environmental analysis of lignocellulosic biorefineries with carbon capture," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    4. Fasahati, Peyman & Wu, Wenzhao & Maravelias, Christos T., 2019. "Process synthesis and economic analysis of cyanobacteria biorefineries: A superstructure-based approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Furtado Júnior, Juarez Corrêa & Palacio, José Carlos Escobar & Leme, Rafael Coradi & Lora, Electo Eduardo Silva & da Costa, José Eduardo Loureiro & Reyes, Arnaldo Martín Martínez & del Olmo, Oscar Alm, 2020. "Biorefineries productive alternatives optimization in the brazilian sugar and alcohol industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    2. Carneiro, Maria Luisa N.M. & Pradelle, Florian & Braga, Sergio L. & Gomes, Marcos Sebastião P. & Martins, Ana Rosa F.A. & Turkovics, Franck & Pradelle, Renata N.C., 2017. "Potential of biofuels from algae: Comparison with fossil fuels, ethanol and biodiesel in Europe and Brazil through life cycle assessment (LCA)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 632-653.
    3. Jonas Zetterholm & Elina Bryngemark & Johan Ahlström & Patrik Söderholm & Simon Harvey & Elisabeth Wetterlund, 2020. "Economic Evaluation of Large-Scale Biorefinery Deployment: A Framework Integrating Dynamic Biomass Market and Techno-Economic Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-28, September.
    4. Satinover, Scott J. & Schell, Dan & Borole, Abhijeet P., 2020. "Achieving high hydrogen productivities of 20 L/L-day via microbial electrolysis of corn stover fermentation products," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    5. Tang, Raymond Chong Ong & Jang, Jer-Huan & Lan, Tzu-Hsuan & Wu, Jung-Chen & Yan, Wei-Mon & Sangeetha, Thangavel & Wang, Chin-Tsan & Ong, Hwai Chyuan & Ong, Zhi Chao, 2020. "Review on design factors of microbial fuel cells using Buckingham's Pi Theorem," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    6. Yazan, Devrim Murat & Mandras, Giovanni & Garau, Giorgio, 2017. "Environmental and economic sustainability of integrated production in bio-refineries: The thistle case in Sardinia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(PB), pages 349-360.
    7. Anusha Ganta & Yasser Bashir & Sovik Das, 2022. "Dairy Wastewater as a Potential Feedstock for Valuable Production with Concurrent Wastewater Treatment through Microbial Electrochemical Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-34, November.
    8. Al-Fatesh, Ahmed Sadeq & Hanan atia, & Ibrahim, Ahmed Aidid & Fakeeha, Anis Hamza & Singh, Sunit Kumar & Labhsetwar, Nitin K. & Shaikh, Hamid & Qasim, Shamsudeen O., 2019. "CO2 reforming of CH4: Effect of Gd as promoter for Ni supported over MCM-41 as catalyst," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 658-667.
    9. Karla Lopez & Vitoria F. C. Leme & Marcin Warzecha & Paul C. Davidson, 2024. "Wastewater Nutrient Recovery via Fungal and Nitrifying Bacteria Treatment," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-12, April.
    10. Clauser, Nicolás M. & Felissia, Fernando E. & Area, María C. & Vallejos, María E., 2021. "A framework for the design and analysis of integrated multi-product biorefineries from agricultural and forestry wastes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    11. Li, Yu & Kesharwani, Rajkamal & Sun, Zeyi & Qin, Ruwen & Dagli, Cihan & Zhang, Meng & Wang, Donghai, 2020. "Economic viability and environmental impact investigation for the biofuel supply chain using co-fermentation technology," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    12. Yi, Qun & Gong, Min-Hui & Huang, Yi & Feng, Jie & Hao, Yan-Hong & Zhang, Ji-Long & Li, Wen-Ying, 2016. "Process development of coke oven gas to methanol integrated with CO2 recycle for satisfactory techno-economic performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 618-628.
    13. Hani Alshahrani & Noman Islam & Darakhshan Syed & Adel Sulaiman & Mana Saleh Al Reshan & Khairan Rajab & Asadullah Shaikh & Jaweed Shuja-Uddin & Aadar Soomro, 2023. "Sustainability in Blockchain: A Systematic Literature Review on Scalability and Power Consumption Issues," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-24, February.
    14. Severo, Ihana Aguiar & Siqueira, Stefania Fortes & Deprá, Mariany Costa & Maroneze, Mariana Manzoni & Zepka, Leila Queiroz & Jacob-Lopes, Eduardo, 2019. "Biodiesel facilities: What can we address to make biorefineries commercially competitive?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 686-705.
    15. Holmgren, Kristina M. & Berntsson, Thore S. & Andersson, Eva & Rydberg, Tomas, 2015. "The influence of biomass supply chains and by-products on the greenhouse gas emissions from gasification-based bio-SNG production systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P1), pages 148-162.
    16. Ghadge, Abhijeet & van der Werf, Sjoerd & Er Kara, Merve & Goswami, Mohit & Kumar, Pankaj & Bourlakis, Michael, 2020. "Modelling the impact of climate change risk on bioethanol supply chains," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    17. Vera, Ivan & Wicke, Birka & Lamers, Patrick & Cowie, Annette & Repo, Anna & Heukels, Bas & Zumpf, Colleen & Styles, David & Parish, Esther & Cherubini, Francesco & Berndes, Göran & Jager, Henriette & , 2022. "Land use for bioenergy: Synergies and trade-offs between sustainable development goals," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    18. Choe, Bomin & Lee, Shinje & Won, Wangyun, 2020. "Process integration and optimization for economical production of commodity chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 242-248.
    19. Diego Teixeira Michalovicz & Patricia Bilotta, 2023. "Impact of a methane emission tax on circular economy scenarios in small wastewater treatment plants," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6575-6589, July.
    20. Kim, H. & Baek, S. & Won, W., 2022. "Integrative technical, economic, and environmental sustainability analysis for the development process of biomass-derived 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:241:y:2019:i:c:p:491-503. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.