COMPARISON OF BUTANOL, ETHANOL AND BIOGAS BIOREFINERIES

BASED ON ULVA RIGIDA MACROALGAE

T. LLANO1, E. CIFRIAN1, A. ANDRÉS1, A. COZ1
1 Green Engineering and resources (GER) research group, Department of Chemistry and
Process and Resources Engineering, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain.
1. Keywords
Anaerobic digestion, biofuels, carbohydrates, fermentation, green algae
2. Highlights
• Techno-economic assessment of three algae-based biorefineries was done
• Third generation biorefineries were simulated in aspen plus software
• Three biofuels were compared from an economic perspective
3. Purpose
Algae production is becoming popular all over the world. It has been reported that this
natural source has antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiviral, antihyperlipidemic, antitumor,
and anti-inflammatory properties [1] whose provide interesting applications in medical,
cosmetic, or food sectors. Algae-based biofuel manufactures constitute the so-called 3rd
generation biorefineries. Such process have a clear advantage over 1st and 2nd
generation biorefineries: (i) they do not compete with food and algae biomass; (ii) they
do not require delignification nor pretreatment step which is usually the bottleneck of
2nd generation plants; (iii) algae has higher photosynthetic efficiency than agricultural or
forestry biomass; (iv) algae consume macronutrients (N and P) and may purify
wastewater (v) higher growth and production rates than plant sources [2].
This work aims to develop three models for producing butanol, ethanol and biogas
comparing which one of them is optimum from a techno-economic point of view.

4. Materials and methods

Ulva rigida feedstock was analyzed in terms of C5 and C6 sugars, ash, cellulose,
holocellulose and extractives.

Three models were developed in Aspen Plus v10 software: (1) ethanolic fermentation
after acid hydrolysis of algae carbohydrates was simulated to produce ethanol; (2)
butanol was produced by carbohydrates hydrolysis and fermentation using
acetobutylicum microorganisms; (3) biogas production through anaerobic digestion of
green algae residues was also simulated. These models operate at the same inlet
conditions to compare the same size plant. Plants were fed using 50,000 kg/h of Ulva
rigida feedstock. Once the simulations were run, economic analysis was conducted using
the Aspen Process Economy Analyzer (APEA) tool. Thus, capital costs, operating costs,
utilities, equipment, and installed costs were analyzed.
5. Results and discussion
The simulated plants include not only carbohydrates hydrolysis and fermentation or
anaerobic digestion but also purification step trough distillation in the acetone-butanol-
ethanol (ABE), distillation coupled with molecular sieves in the ethanol plant and
cryogenic distillation in the biogas plant. This step is necessary to get a final high-quality
product that permits to be used as a fuel without any other treatment. ABE plant
produces 2,666 kg/h of butanol (purity of 99.8 %); 678 kg/h of acetone, and 41 kg/h of
ethanol; the ethanol plant produces 8217 kg/h with a purity of 99.5 %. Finally, the biogas
plant produces 6,413 kg/h of biogas from which 410 kg/h is methane (purity of 95.8 %)
and 156 kg/h is H2 (purity of 99.9 %)
Next, in Figure 1 results of the APEA analysis are shown for the three simulated plants.
In all cases the highest costs are in descending order operating costs, followed by utilities
and capital costs. Among them these costs category represented between 76.3 and 85.6
% of the total costs. The most economic ulva-based biorefinery is the ABE plant with a
total cost of 74.4 M€, followed by the biogas plant (81.6 M€), and finally the ethanol
plant (115 M€).

Cost analysis
3.5E+07
3.0E+07
2.5E+07
2.0E+07
1.5E+07
1.0E+07
5.0E+06
0.0E+00
Capital costs Operating Utilities cots Equipment Installed costs Raw material
(€) costs (€/year) (€/year) costs (€) (€) costs (€/year)

Butanol plant Ethanol plant Biogas plant

6. Conclusions and perspectives

Three ulva-based biorefineries were simulated using Aspen Plus v10 software. A techno-
economic analysis was done. The highest plant yield was obtained in the ethanol plant
(0.16 kg of product per kg of feedstock), followed by the biogas plant (0.13 kg/kg), and
the ABE plant (0.05 kg/kg). However, the cheapest biorefinery is the ABE plant (74.4 M€)
followed by the biogas plant (81.6 M€) and the ethanol plant (115 M€). To get most
competitive plants better liquid-solid ratio in hydrolysis should be tested.
7. References
1. Yu-Qing, T., Mahmood, K., Shehzadi, R., Ashraf, M.F.: Ulva Lactuca and Its Polysaccharides:
Food and Biomedical Aspects. J. Biol. Agric. Healthc. 6, 140–151 (2016)
2. Geada, P., Moreira, C., Silva, M., Nunes, R., Madureira, L., Rocha, C.M.R., Pereira, R.N.,
Vicente, A.A., Teixeira, J.A.: Algal proteins: Production strategies and nutritional and
functional properties. Bioresour. Technol. 332, (2021).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125125