The ABC Project – A ssessing B iomass to C hemicals

1. The ABC Project – Assessing Biomass to Chemicals

2. Why Industrial Interest ? • Platform chemicals from renewable raw materials • Security of supply (availability and pricing of petrochemicals) • Interest in improving sustainability of business (being a good corporate citizen) • ‘green minded’ specifiers • green consumers & retailers • Wastes as raw materials • Reduced Carbon emissions (& taxation)

3. BUT Economic picture is convoluted • Can renewable raw materials compete on: • Scale • Economy & Subsidies • Security of supply • Integration of processes/supply chain • Real sustainability • New materials • Emphasis to-date has been on biofuels Project to refine this picture

4. Target Tool for evaluation of economic opportunity & options for producing chemicals from biomass. Enabled By Selection of limited set of industrially relevant target molecules Systems approach for rapid assessment and optimisation of feedstocks, routings and product capacities. Project Approach Confirmation By Test cases based on real operations & applications addressing: • Gasification & Synthesis processing options • Fuels/Chemicals integration including biotechnology based routes

5. Partners and Roles

6. Target Chemicals Also Methanol & Ethanol

7. ABC - BIO FEEDSTOCK PREFERENCES Leading Contenders Woody biomass as chips or pellets MSW and Wood waste from commercial/industrial sources Cereal (energy) crops and residues Specification Chipped materials – 25 – 60% moisture, calorific value varies widely due variation in moisture content, measured in tonnes Pellet material – typically 8% moisture, 18 – 20 GJ/tonne energy content, measured in 'Oven dried tonnes' – 'odt'

10. Two Stage Approach • Process Outlines & Models • Detailed Flow sheets • Systems Platform Development • Cost Models & Optimisation

11. Process Route Map

12. Process Outlines CO2 Compressor CO2 Recycle Non-sulphided, F-T catalyst Raw Gas Compressor CO2 Removal H2S Removal Fired Reformer CO2 Vent Syn Gas Recycle Process Dryer Reactor SG Compressor Cooling Reactor MeOH Recycle Distillation EtOH 323 Te/day HA’s 54 Te/day Fuel

13. Detailed Flow Sheets

14. ABC – 19 Process Flowsheet Packages Combined expertise and efforts of Newcastle, Teesside and Nepic Thermochemical and Fermentation routes Providing definition to a first level of industrial application A substantial IPR package for the UK chemical industry

15. ABC –Systems Platform Two Modes • Simulation Mode • enables stand-alone evaluations and straight comparisons • most common application e.g. evaluate payback for a specific route • Much emphasis here in response to industry needs • Optimisation Mode • enables optimisation between complex options • For use in more detailed evaluations e.g. select routing for minimum CO2 emissions between alternative candidate permutations

16. Simulation-based assessment • What-if study • Separate assessment of individual cases Simulation-based assessment Result of assessment Economics Energy consumption GHG emission Feedstock Definition of a specific route Process steps Input parameters Production scale Adjustable processing parameters Prices of feedstocks/products Economic incentive parameters

17. Types, volumes, and distribution of biomass available • Other applicable feedstocks • Applicable processing routes and technologies • Candidate products • Economical and environmental constraints • Most suitable feedstock (types, volumes, locations) • Optimal product portfolio and production scale • Most suitable processing routes and technologies Systematic screening and optimisation Result Definition of solution space Selection of objective function(s) • Economic performance • Energy consumption • GHG emission Optimisation-based assessment • Single-shot assessment over multiple options (feedstocks, processing routes, and products) • Optimal selection of processes and decision parameters • Advanced scenarios: Feedstock and product portfolios, combined use of multiple paths • All with the rigour of optimisation and exhaustive analysis

18. EVALUATION CRITERIA • Capital costs • Operating costs • Operating margin • Carbon footprint • Green house gas emissions • Energy consumed • Alternative outlets for feedstocks • Logistics of supply chain • Bio handling considerations • Plant scale • Technological risk • state of development of the technology • Robustness to feedstock variations • Production of By-products

19. Capital Cost Estimates Requirement is for: • Rapid on-line evaluation based on flowsheet information • First level of accuracy only, suitable for initial comparisons rather than sanction estimates Research identified: • Taylor Method based on main plant items and previous known results

20. Process modelling Process streams data Feedstock volume Net energy contribution/consumption Product volume GHG emission Fixed cost estimation Variable cost estimation Fixed cost Variable cost Total cost Process and performance modelling

21. Utilities (steam, electricity, fuel) Auxiliary chemicals, catalysts UoS Material feed streams Material product streams Lost material/energy streams Energy product streams UoS UoS UoS UoS UoS UoS UoS The UoS (Unit of Synthesis) Defining the scope of an elementary unit to be involved in modeling and optimisation

22. Process modelling • Process modelling firstly carried out for individual conversion steps (i.e. Units of Synthesis) • Models of individual steps are then connected, to model • a “super”-flowsheet of a production route, in the case of simulation; • a superstructure of multiple production routes, in the case of optimisation. Characterise a “reference plant” according to the process package Identify the main feed Estimate all streams of a new process by linear scaling around the flow rate of the main feed

23. production Energy consumption & GHG emission Boundaries of analysis • “Cradle-to-grave”: this boundary starts with what the nature offers and ends at the “diminishing” of products (via waste management) • “Cradle-to-factory gate”: this boundary starts with what the nature offers and ends at the product (and waste) outlet of the factory • “Production”: this covers only the production system itself – chosen for this project Source: BREW (2006)

24. Estimating energy consumption • Energy streams • Including combustion fuel, electricity, and steam • Treated separately or converted to a unified quantity (e.g. oil-equivalent) • At the level of individual conversion steps • Process description offers data of energy streams • Net consumption/generation calculated for each type of energy stream • At the level of a production system that combines several conversion steps • “total net consumption = sum of the figures of individual conversion steps

25. Estimating GHG footprint • GHG considered • This in principle should include CO2 and other GHG • Only CO2 is considered in this project • At the level of individual conversion steps • Process description offers data on CO2 emitted to atmosphere by each conversion steps (by e.g. flue gas) • At the level of a production system that combines several conversion steps • total CO2 emitted = sum of the figures of individual conversion steps

26. Cost modelling • Fixed costs • Capital costs • Taylor’s approach adopted • Fixed operating costs • Labour, maintenance, insurance, etc. • The NREL protocol adopted • Variable (operating) costs • Relying on unit prices of feedstock and energy streams

27. Develop models of individual processing steps (UoS) to offer a common model library Construct superstructure models to represent all opportunities in a given application case Optimise the superstructure model to obtain optimal options/configurations F1 Conventional feedstock: F1 P1 C1 C2 P1 P2 C5 C1 C2 P2 C5 C3 P3 C4 B1 B2 B3 C3 P3 C4 F3 C1 C2 P3 B1 B2 B4 Conventional step C3 C4 Bio-based feedstock:F2 F3 Bio-processing step C5 C6 And/or branching B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 Methodology for synthesis and optimisation

28. Platform Implementation approach • Initially driven by two key chemicals • Ethylene • Industrial importance • Multiple routes • Propylene glycol • Industrial importance • Sharing processing steps with ethylene production • Improved when considering other chemicals • Feedbacks from partners helped to improve the implementation

29. Overall design of the platform Platform database UoS Reference Plant data Other data (e.g. price info) Simulation tool Synthesis/optimisation tool Modeling and optimisation engine GAMS User Interface Excel

30. Database of 19 UoS’s

31. Characteristics of the Streams (Flow rate, Temperature, Pressure) Database - UoS Input and Output Material Streams Composition of each Stream

32. Database - UoS There is a part related to Economics of the Reference Plant of the UoS in a particular scale.

33. Biomass feedstock Chemicals Catalysts Water Materials Combustion fuel Steam Electricity Energy Waste water treatment Solid waste disposal Cooling water treatment Services Database – price info

34. Simulation Tool – Top level interface

35. Simulation Tool – route definition

36. Simulation Tool – viewing results

37. Simulation Tool – viewing results

38. Simulation Tool – viewing results

39. GAMS Optimisation LP MILP Numerical solvers NLP MINLP Master_model.gms Optimisation problem formulation, problem-specific but maybe generated by adapting some general formulations. process and performance models Model_x.gms Optimisation tool • Intended function – rapid screening and integration of a large number of processing options • Implementation • Key process and performance models • Superstructure representation • Model linearization • Interface with Excel database

40. GAMS screenshot

41. 419.222 te/h Corn stover Fermentation 105.5 te/h Dehydration Wood chips Fermentation 43.800 te/h 58.3 te/h 105.5 te/h Gasification syngas Fermentation ethanol Ethylene syngas MSW Indirect Fermentation 63.2 te/h 4.9 te/hour 52.4 te/h Direct Fermentation 30.8 te/h MTO Mixed alcohol synthesis methanol 4.6 te/hour reforming Rapeseed oil 52.4 te/h 30.8 te/h propylene Methanol synthesis Anaerobic digestion methane Transesterification 4.6 te/hour Acetoxidation hydrolysis Anaerobic digestion 6.32 te/h Propylene glycol Hydrogenolysis glycerol Mixed alcohol Biodiesel Optimisation Tests by Surrey An example – Find best routes for ethylene @ 500,000te/year; propylene glycol@ 50,000te/year; possible by-products (biodiesel, mixed alcohol, propylene), subject to an upper limit of any single type of feedstock at 1000te/hr (or ~8000,000te/year).

42. Overview Application and extension • A stable version of the platform tested by partners at the final stage of the project • Simulation tool by INVISTA and LINK2ENERGY • Optimisation tool by SURREY • Feedback collected • Status of the software prototype • Developed primarily for realising the proposed methodology for it to be tested. • Excel-based simulation platform considered as a tool which is user friendly and easy to use. • Further software-related improvement is expected to make it mature enough to be adopted in engineering/business practice.

43. ABC - What Next • Work with KTN & universities to take forward platform development • Look for opportunity to link to Ccalc tool • Demonstration of capabilities with a view to encourage Industry take-up of: • Developed platform  for investigating viable bio manufacturing routes. • Process flow sheet definitions for the 19 intermediate processes in designing future facilities • Information regarding bio feedstocks, processing equipment, key evaluation parameters, etc, etc. arising out of the project.