Biorefinery

or
Concept of Biorefinery
Dr. Sunil Kumar Maity

Department of Chemical Engineering

Email: sunil_maity@iith.ac.in
 Biorefinery
or
Concept of Biorefinery
CH2460, CH3560, CH6400

Energy and chemical scenario, needs for renewable feedstock, biorefinery - analogy with
petroleum refinery and petrochemical industry, types and chemistry of biomass, types of
biorefinery and their opportunities and challenges, platform chemicals, fuels and
chemicals from vegetable oils, bio-ethanol and bio-butanol - production and application as
biofuels and chemicals, thermochemical conversion processes- gasification and pyrolysis,
hydrocarbon biorefinery.

References
1. James H. Gary, Glenn E. Handwerk, Mark J. Kaiser, Petroleum Refining: Technology and
Economics. CRC Press, 5th edition, 2007.
2. Birgit Kamm, Patrick R. Gruber, Michael Kamm, Biorefineries - industrial processes and
products: status quo and future directions. Volume 1&2, Wiley-VCH, 2006.
3. SK Maity, Opportunities, recent trends and challenges of integrated biorefinery: Part I.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2015, 43, 1427-1445.
4. SK Maity, Opportunities, recent trends and challenges of integrated biorefinery: Part II.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2015, 43, 1446-1466.
 OVERVIEW OF PETROLEUM REFINERY

Ref.: James H. Gary, Glenn E. Handwerk, Mark J. Kaiser, Petroleum Refining: Technology and Economics. CRC Press, 5th edition, 2007.
 OVERVIEW OF PETROCHEMICALS

Primary Raw materials Primary

Petrochemicals and feedstock Petrochemicals

Synthesis Gas
(CO+H2)

Raw materials and primary petrochemicals.

Ref.: James G. Speight, Fourth Edition, CRC Press, 2007.

 What is the current energy scenario?

Others*  Global energy consumption: was12,150

Biofuels and 0.8% million tons oil equivalent in 2009
Hydro
waste
Nuclear 2.3% 10.2%
5.8% Oil
32.8%

Natuaral gas
20.9%

Coal
27.2%

 80% of energy comes from fossil fuels such as crude oils, coal, and natural gas
 10% from bio-fuels
 2% from hydro based
 5% from nuclear
 1% from windmills and photovoltaic put together
 Why Fossil Fuel Base?

 Applications need concentrated energy i.e. high energy densities.

 Extraction, storage, distribution and service infrastructure is well established

and stable.

 Large scale production results in affordable running cost.

Fuel Wh/kg
Gasoline 12300
Natural Gas 9350
Coal 8200
Methanol 6200
Battery (lead-acid) 35
 Why Fossil Fuel Base?

 Petrol/diesel fuel stations infrastructure is available

 LPG gas is distributed at your doorstep

 LPG and CNG service infrastructure is also well established

 Customers need not bother about storage and service infrastructure costs.
Payment is only for running cost of fuel.
 Why should we look for alternate energy sources?

 Increase in Energy Demands

World marketed energy use by fuel type, 1990-2035 (quadrillion Btu)

Source: EIA, International Energy Statistics database (as of November 2009), web site: www.eia.gov/emeu/international. Projections: EIA,
World Energy Projection System Plus (2010).
 Why should we look for alternate energy sources?

 Fossil fuel based systems produce detrimental effects on the environments.

A case for environment…

 Green house effects
 Climate change
 Depletion of stratospheric
ozone layer

Green house effect

 Green house gases are the temperature stabilizers of the earth’s atmosphere.
 Temperature stabilization is by trapping radiated heat from the earth’s
surface by these green house gases.
 Green house gases–carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane,
chlorofluorocarbons.
 Why should we look for alternate energy sources?

Global warming
 Due to emissions from the fossil fuel based systems, the green house
gases in the atmosphere increases.
 As a result, the average temperature of the earth is becoming higher.

World energy-related carbon dioxide emissions

by fuel type, 1990-2035 (billion metric tons)
 How long will fossil fuel last?

 Energy consumption in a year can be

calculated by taking the sum of energy
generated by different sources in a year.
Statistics indicate that the energy
consumption in year 2004 was 70×1012
KWh. Estimates indicate that the energy
consumption is increasing at the rate of
7% pa.
 Consider a hypothetical case where in earth contains a thin core filled entirely
with oil. It turns out that the volume of the oil present is
(4/3)×π×(6378×103)3=1.086×1021m3.
 The energy density of fuel is in the range of 10000 Wh/Lt. The energy content
in the fuel within the earth is obtained as 1.1×1025 KWh.
 Assuming that growth rate is maintained at 7% and the entire energy is supplied
using fossil fuels. The energy requirement at any time, t can be calculated using
70×1012e0.07t KWh.
 t is obtained as 368 years. The fossil fuels will get depleted in about 368 years.
 How long will fossil fuel last?

 If we consider the real situation, the earth is not-completely filled with oil as
assumed and further the annual energy consumption rate is continually
growing. So the fuel may get exhausted in about 70-100 years.
 If the reserves of fuels decrease there will be a sharp increase in the price of
energy/chemicals. This will lead to decrease in fossil fuel consumption. If
alternative sources are explored and utilized, then the fossil fuel may be
actually used for more number of years.
 RENEWABLE ENERGY

 Renewable Energy Sources

• Have the potential to provide energy services with zero or almost zero emissions of
both air pollutants and greenhouse gases
• Use the sun’s energy
• Currently, RESs supply 14% of the total world energy demand

 Main renewable energy sources and their usage forms

Energy source Energy conversion and usage options
Hydropower Power generation
Geothermal Urban heating, power generation, hydrothermal, hot dry rock
Solar Solar home system, solar dryers, solar cookers
Direct solar Photovoltaics, thermal power generation, water heaters
Wind Power generation, wind generators, windmills, water pumps
Tidal Barrage, tidal stream
biomass Heat and power generation, pyrolysis, gasification, digestion
In 2005 the distribution of renewable energy consumption as a percentage of total renewable
energy in the world was as follows: biomass 46%, hydroelectric 45%, geothermal 6%, wind
2%, and solar 1%.
 RENEWABLE ENERGY

 Projected Global renewable energy scenario by 2040

Approximately half of the global energy supply will come from renewables in 2040,
according to the European Renewable Energy Council (2006)
 BIOREFINERY
Refinery versus Biorefinery Biomass-Process-Products Procedure

New manufacturing concepts are continuously evolving to produce an array of bio-fuels and
multitude of bio-products from biomass. These complex processing technologies are
analogous to today's integrated petroleum refinery and petrochemical industries commonly
known as biorefinery.
 Transportation fuel

 The transportation sector alone consumed 28.58 quadrillion kJ in 2011 which was 28% of
world's energy consumption (103.08 quadrillion kJ).
 The consumption of petroleum products in India during 2010–11 was 14.18x107 metric
tons with more than 50% share of transportation fuels alone.
Consumption of transportation fuels in India
7
8x10
Mogas
Consumption of transportation fuels, tons/annum

7
7x10 ATF
HSDO
7
6x10 Total

7
5x10

7
4x10

7
3x10

7
2x10

7
1x10

0
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11
Year