ETBE Production from Biomass

Hind Arab, Yasmine Baghdadi, Elie Berbari, Vincent El Ghoubaira, Ghina Hneine
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
American University of Beirut
Beirut, Lebanon
hma90@mail.aub.edu, ynb00@mail.aub.edu, egb07@mail.aub.edu, vae01@mail.aub.edu, gwh00@mail.aub.edu

Lebanese municipal solid waste is mostly made up of organic
material. To be exact, 1.34 million tons of organic waste was
produced in Lebanon in 2015. This waste can be used as raw
material in the production of ethyl tert-butyl ether; a chemical
compound used as an oxygenate additive to gasoline to increase its
octane number. The aim of this study is to design an ETBE
production facility which employs bioethanol and isobutylene as
raw materials.
Municipal solid waste in Lebanon can be divided into three
main categories: food, paper, and greens. The main feed has a flow
rate of 76,484 kg/hr, half of the Lebanese organic waste, and is
mainly composed of glucose, cellulose, xylan, lignin and water. The
first step is the acidic pretreatment of the feed using diluted sulfuric
to treat the hemicellulose and lignin. Next, the stream enters dilute
acid hydrolysis to help break down the remaining cellulose.
The stream is now mainly composed of glucose and xylose along
with traces of other sugars and lignin. NaOH is added to the
mixture to neutralize the acid and lignin is removed by decantation.
Five CSTRs in the presence of a microorganism called Z. mobilis
are used to convert glucose and xylose into bioethanol. This process
is followed by a flash separator to exhaust CO2 and a nanofiltration
system to remove Na2SO4. After that, a pressure swing system is
added to bypass the azeotropic ethanol-water mixture and produce
a stream with 96% ethanol.
After thorough research, it was decided to buy isobutylene at a
price of $0.141/L from Evonik Industries AG in Amman, Jordan.
Having both ethanol and isobutylene the reactants are mixed and
entered into a packed bed reactor in presence of Amberlyst-15 as a
catalyst. The system produces 71.86 m3/hr of ETBE.
I. INTRODUCTION
As the Lebanese population is increasing, the quantity of
waste produced is constantly on the rise. Due to unresolved
social and political issues, large amounts of unsorted waste is
being dumped on the streets or disposed of in unsanitary
landfills. Putting an end to the municipal solid waste crisis in
Lebanon is crucial; the accumulation of waste on the streets and
in unsanitary landfills leads to numerous diseases and creates
severe environmental issues including the emission of
greenhouse gases and the pollution of underground water.
Waste should not be perceived as a burden; it may be used to
manufacture valuable products such as ETBE. ETBE, ethyl tert-
butyl ether, or 2-ethoxy-2-methyl-propane is characterized by
the chemical formula C6H14O and is used as an oxygenate
additive to gasoline fuel to raise its octane number and reduce
the pollution from the exhausts of cars. Adding ETBE to
gasoline reduces the discharge of carbon monoxide, carbon soot
and compounds such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons and nitrated
PAHs created during the burning of fuel in cars’ engines. Hence,
mixing ETBE with gasoline has a positive impact on the
environment and on human health [1].
ETBE can be produced from the organic fraction of waste
which accounts for 52.5% or 1.34 million tons of the total mass
of solid waste produced in Lebanon in 2015 [2]. This organic
waste can be fermented to bioethanol which then reacts with
isobutylene to give ETBE [1].
According to a study done by the Lebanese Ministry of
Energy and Water Resources, 1,625,587 tons and 279,787 tons
of premium unleaded gasoline 95 and 98 were consumed in
2015 [4], respectively. With densities equal to 0.740 g/cm3 [4]
and 0.750 g/cm3 [5] at 15˚C for the premium unleaded gasoline
95 and 98 respectively, this means that, 196,739 m3 and 373,049
m3 of premium unleaded gasoline 95 and 98 were consumed in
Lebanon in 2015, respectively. According to European
standards, this means that in total 385,468 m3 of ETBE must be
manufactured per year to meet the demand of the Lebanese
market.
II. PROCESS DESIGN AND SIMULATION
After performing a thorough literature review of existing
processes to produce ETBE, it was found that organic biomass
must undergo pretreatment and acidic hydrolysis prior to its
fermentation into ethanol. Then, ethanol is purified and reacted
with isobutylene to produce the final product. Figure 1 shows a
simplified block flow diagram of the process under study.
Aspen Plus was used to simulate the designed process and
compare the results to theoretical hand calculations.
A. Pretreatment
According to a paper from University College London, 57.4%
of waste in London is biodegradable. Among these, 23.6% are
paper and cardboard waste, 26.1% are kitchen organic waste and
7.7% are green organic waste which is mostly grass [6].
Figure 1. Process block flow diagram
 TABLE I
ORGANIC WASTE COMPOSITION
Paper (kg/hr) Green (kg/hr) Food (kg/hr)
Glucose 0 0 11805
Cellulose 18042 3476 3698
Xylan 4354 2029 1801
Lignin 5665 3513 3210
H2O 1537 1531 13108
Ash 1760 82 872 Figure 2. Process flow diagram for the acidic pretreatment and hydrolysis
processes.

In Lebanon, 1.34 million tons of organic waste are produced
yearly and constitute 52.5% of the total waste composition. This
means that every hour around 153,000 kg of organic waste is
produced. For this project, 76500 kg/hr or half of the quantity of
organic waste was taken as the main feed. The organic waste
feed composition was then calculated based on the composition
of the organic municipal solid waste in London and plugged into
the simulation.
The waste composition is shown in table I. The hemicellulose
in the process was assumed to be xylan since it is the main
hemicellulose present in most of the biomass composition. It is
entering the process at a temperature of 45℃ and a pressure of
1 atm.
Since the simulation is dealing with polar components that
dissolve in water, the selected fluid package was NRTL in
Aspen Plus.
Pretreatment is done to make the cellulosic biomass more
prone to enzymatic conversion. It improves the formation of
sugars and increases the yield of the preceding hydrolysis
process. One of the most used methods of pretreatment in
industry utilizes dilute sulfuric acid since it is inexpensive and
effective [6].
In the pretreatment process, several reactions take place:
Cellulose + H2O Cellobiose (1)
Cellulose + H2O Glucose (2)
Xylan + H2O Xylose (3)
Xylan Furfural + 2H2O (4)
Lignin Soluble Lignin (5)
In the process, the biomass enters at 45℃ and 1 atm at a flow
rate of 76,484 kg/hr. It is mixed with water which is coming
from the recycle stream at 99.9℃ and 1 atm to decrease the solid
fraction. The 2 streams are mixed with a 5% mole fraction
sulfuric acid entering at 25℃ and 1 atm. The resulting stream is
pumped to increase the pressure to 12.1 atm.
To increase the temperature to the required value, the stream
is mixed with high pressure steam which is a saturated vapor at
4237 kPa and 254℃. The reaction took place in a CSTR at a
temperature of 190℃ and a pressure of 12.1 atm with a residence
time of around 1.5 minute. The pretreatment in this process
converted most of the hemicellulose Xylan into its monomer
Xylose which is used in the fermentation to produce ethanol.
B. Dilute Acid Hydrolysis
Dilute acid hydrolysis is the second step in the ETBE
production process. It is the use of a dilute acid to hydrolyze
hemicellulosic material.
In the process, a flow of 113,332 kg/hr exits the pretreatment
stage with H2SO4 at 1.1 wt%. The same acid concentration will
be used at this stage but at different conditions. Therefore, it
enters a valve to decrease the pressure to 4.85 atm then a heat
exchanger which cools it down to 150 ℃ with a 0.35 atm
pressure drop.
At this stage, all the conditions are set for the acidic
pretreatment where the following reactions take place:
Cellulose + H2O Glucose (6)
Glucose HMF + 3H2O (7)
Xylan + H2O Xylose (8)
Xylose Furfural + 3H2O (9)
The reactions take place in a CSTR and the resulting stream
is mainly composed of glucose and xylose. Figure 2 shows a
process flow diagram of the pretreatment and hydrolysis steps.
C. Fermentation
The acid (H2SO4) should be removed from the mixture prior
to the fermentation process. The neutralization of the acidic
mixture can be achieved by the addition of a base, namely
sodium hydroxide (NaOH). A 2085 kg/hr stream containing 30%
mol NaOH is pumped to 1.78 atm and 30℃. This stream will be
used to neutralize the main stream to be fermented.
The main stream exiting the hydrolysis stage is depressurized
to 1.78 atm using a valve. It is then mixed with a stream of
recycled water. The reaction between the acid and the base
results in the production of salt and water: Na2SO4 and H2O.
Cooling water is used in the first heat exchanger to make the
mixture a saturated liquid. The mixture goes in at 118°C and
1.78 atm with a 0.01 vapor fraction and exits at 116°C and 1.68
atm with vapor fraction of zero. Similarly, cooling water is used
in a second heat exchanger to complete the phase change of the
main stream. The mixture exits at 76°C and 1.34 atm as a
saturated liquid. The last heat exchanger aims to decrease the
temperature to 40°C and 1 atm.
The decanter is used to separate lignin from the main stream .
The lignin goes out of the decanter at 40°C, 1 atm and a flowrate
of 16953 kg/hr while the remaining mixture exits at the same
temperature and pressure with a flow of 198464 kg/hr.
Traditionally, fermentation is performed in the presence of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae or yeast. However, for this design,
Zymomonas mobilis is used because it was found to have a
higher uptake and ethanol yield (up to 2.5 times higher than
yeast).

Figure 3. Process flow diagram for the neutralization, lignin removal, and
fermentation processes
It also has a higher ethanol tolerance up to 16% (v/v) and does
not require the controlled addition of oxygen during
fermentation [7,8].
After reaching the adequate operating conditions for
fermentation (40 °C and 1 atm), the flow is split into five equal
flows. This split is done due to the high flow rate such that a
smaller fermenter is more practical and easier for the bacteria to
attack the sugars. This split is also crucial to achieve a minimum
residence time of two hours [9]. Therefore, five flow rates are
undergoing the same set of reactions in parallel reactors.
In the CSTR, the two main fermentation reactions are occurring
[10].
C6H12O6 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2 (10)
3 C5H10O5 5 C2H5OH + 5 CO2 (11)
Since the role of the bacteria can be analogous to a catalyst,
the kinetic model representing these reactions is chosen to be the
LHHW model in Aspen Plus. The rate is affected by the uptake
rate of sugars and the equilibrium constants [10]. The rate of
ethanol production is given by the following equation.
s p− Pip Kip
rp = qp,max ( ) . (1 − ) .( ) (12)
Ksp +s Pmp − Pip Kip +s
Where s is the sugar concentration and p is the ethanol
concentration. The rest of the constants are given in table II,
Appendix A.
The flow entering the reactors contains mainly water, glucose
and xylose with some traces of unbroken polymers. Both
reactions reach 99% conversion in a 90,000L reactor. Ethanol
concentration in the stream exiting the reactors is equal to 12%
since a higher concentration will inhibit bacterial activity.
To proceed with the purification of ethanol it is required to
separate the gases, especially CO2 from the remaining liquid
stream. In order to do that, a flash distillation column is added.
The flash separator runs at 40℃ and 1 atm. It exhausts 22719
kg/hr of CO2 along with 1253 kg/hr of ethanol and 726 kg/hr of
water vapor. Figure 3 shows the process flow diagram of
neutralization, lignin extraction, and fermentation processes.
Figure 4. Process flow diagram for the process of ethanol purification
D. Separation and Purification
After neutralization of the stream at the end of the hydrolysis,
sodium sulfate is formed. Removal of sodium sulfate is a
common process in wastewater treatment. Two main methods
for salt removal were researched: removal through membrane
separation and removal by salt precipitation through ion
exchange [11].
Nanofiltration is a membrane water treatment technique with
wide applications in wastewater and industrial water treatments.
The NF membranes characteristics are between reverse those of
osmosis (RO) and ultra-filtration (UF). Compared to RO
membranes NF membranes have a loose structure, therefore
higher permeate fluxes and lower operating pressures [12].
Moreover, the salts (Na2SO4 NaCl, and CaCl2) rejection of this
membrane is greater than 90% [13]. Therefore, NF membrane is
chosen to be applied in this process. The membrane removes
about 14,458 kg/hr of water containing Na2SO4.
At this stage, the stream is mainly composed of water and
ethanol (82.6 and 14.41% respectively) along with 2.9% traces
of impurities. The stream enters a distillation column at 40℃
and 1 atm. The column bottom stream is 96.7 wt% pure water.
This stream will be recycled for use at the beginning of the
process.
Aspen plus showed that at a temperature of 78℃ the ethanol-
water mixture exhibits an azeotrope when the composition of the
mixture becomes 8.73 mol% water and 91.27 mol% ethanol.
Therefore, and to bypass the existing azeotrope, a pressure
swing is required.
At this point a pressure swing distillation system is set up to
bypass the azeotropic mixture and reach an ethanol purity of 96
mol% [14]. 25032 kg/hr of which 91% is ethanol enter the first
distillation column where the pressure is reduced to 0.1 atm and
using 30 stages 2125 kg/hr of water are exiting from the bottom
while the remaining azeotropic mixture in the distillate is
pressurized using a multi stage pump (4 pumps each with a
pressure ratio of 3.76) and entered a second distillation column
in which the pressure is 20 atm.
The column distillate is then depressurized and recycled back
to the low-pressure column while the bottom stream is 96 mol%
ethanol. Figure 4 shows the process flow diagram of the pressure
swing.
E. Main Reaction
The reactants are needed to be set the operation conditions of
90℃ and 20 atm to produce ETBE. So, ethanol stream and the
isobutylene stream are both cooled down to around 90 ℃ using
cooling water with temperature of 30 ℃. Isobutylene is also
compressed to 20 atm by a series of compressors.
Both reactants are mixed together in a packed bed reactor in
the presence of the catalyst Amberlyst-15. The main reaction is
as followed:
C2H5OH + i- C4H8 → (CH3)3COC2H5 (13)
The Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW)
formalism is chosen as the kinetic model for this reaction. The
rate is based on the activity instead of the concentration of the
components due to the non-ideal nature of the mixture.
a a
k si (aEtOH 2 aIB - EtOH IB )
K
r'ETBE = (14)
(1+K EtOH aEtOH )3
The activity of component i is related to the mixture molar
fraction and its activity coefficient that is calculated by using the
UNIFAC method (𝑎𝑖 = 𝑥𝑖 𝛾𝑖 ). 𝑘𝑠𝑖 is the rate constant which is
expressed based on Arrhenius equation (14).K and 𝐾𝐸𝑡𝑂𝐻 are
the ETBE synthesis equilibrium constant (15) and the adsorption
equilibrium constant of ethanol (16) that are both depending on
temperature.
J
60.4×106 kmol
ksi =2,060,555,556 exp(- ) (15)
RT
4069.59
lnK=10.387+ -2.89055 lnT-1.91544×10-2 T
T ratio is calculated, and this allows the calculation of the actual
+(5.28586×10-5 )T2 -(5.32977×10-8 )T3 (16)
ln K EtOH =-1.707+
1,323.07
(17)
T
The amount of catalyst needed for the reaction is 0.96 kg cat/
kmol/h of isobutylene. The amount of isobutylene fed to the
reactor is equal to 493 kmol/hr resulting in 470 kg of catalyst for
the packed bed reactor (PBR). The void fraction of the catalyst
Amberlyst-15 is 0.42 and the PBR in this process is adiabatic.
Ethanol has a high conversion around 99.9 % producing 490
kmol/hr of ETBE. The product stream then enters a distillation
column at 90oC and 19.7 atm to purify the ETBE and to recycle
the remaining reactants. In the bottom of the column, ETBE is
obtained at a purity of 98.8% weight which is above the
minimum purity needed as a gasoline additive.
F. Waste Management
In the production of ETBE, large quantities of waste are
produced as a side effect and is needed to be treated. Of the
wastes produced, the lignin stream has a flow rate of around
17000 kg/h of which 12300kg/hr is pure lignin, and the rest is
composed of water, ash and other solid components. Industrially,
most of the lignin produced is incinerated to produce electricity
due to its high calorific value of 26.5MJ/kg. The lignin flow rate
of 12300 kg/hr and an efficiency of 21% produces 68500 MJ/hr
or 19 MW of energy produced enough to power up the plant and
its machines. The moving grate will be used to incinerate the
lignin which can handle up to 35 metric tons of lignin per hour
and run for 8000 hours per year.
In the process, large amounts of water are used where they
come from the biomass, the added acid and the high-pressure
steam. Part of this water is used in the pretreatment and the
hydrolysis however most of it remains after the production of
ethanol. This impure water is first stripped from Na2SO4 using a
membrane separation and then is separated from the ethanol
stream along with other impurities and most of it is recycled
back into the process where the unrecycled water is cooled and
treated to be used in other domains.
III. EQUIPMENT SIZING
A. Distillation Columns
Four distillation columns are used in this process. The first
one (C1) separates water from ethanol up until the mixture’s
azeotrope. This column is followed by two other towers (C-2
and C-3) which, through a pressure swing, overcome the
azeotrope and allow further separation of ethanol from water.
The last column (C-4) separates the product (Ethyl tert-butyl
ether) from the remaining raw material (Isobutylene) in order to
get a stream of 98% (molar) pure ETBE which can then be sold.
The design of the distillation columns follows the following
procedure. First, the relative volatility of the components is
obtained in order to compute the minimum number of stages
required in each column. From this value, the actual number of
stages in each column is found. Afterwards, the column reflux
reflux ratio of each column. At this stage, the feed point location
can be estimated and the diameter, height, thickness, and
pressure drop in the column are found.
The design of the plates in the column is also important.
Specific correlations for the plates helps determine the number
of holes in each tray which achieve best separation.
The values obtained for the different parameters related to the
distillation columns is summarized in table V of Appendix B.
B. Packed Bed Reactor
The feed into the reactor is a mixture of ethanol and
isobutylene. Bioethanol produced from the preceding process
enters at 88.5℃, 20 atm with a flow rate of 22851 kg/hr whereas
the purchased isobutylene is compressed to 20 atm and 89℃.
The resulting mixture is at 90℃.
The most efficient catalyst for the reaction discussed above is
Amberlyst-15. This catalyst has a void fraction of 0.42 and the
reaction needs almost 0.96 kg of the catalyst per kmol/hour of
isobutylene used. This means that the process needs a total of
470 kg of Amberlyst-15.
After performing the required design calculations, it was
deduced the main flow is to be divided into 15 PBR units in
parallel. Each unit has a diameter of 18 cm and a height of 1.89m.
C. Continuous Stirred Tank Reactors
In this process, three types of continuously stirred reactors are
needed for pre-treatment, hydrolysis and fermentation. The
reaction conditions in each reactor are stated in table III,
Appendix B. Based on the resulting environment each reactor is
designed and the material is chosen. The pre-treatment and
hydrolysis reactors are made of Hastelloy-30 due to the presence
of the acid [15] whereas the fermentation reactor from stainless
steel 316L due the presence of the microorganisms [16].
In the pre-treatment and hydrolysis, the impeller used is a
A310 Hydrofoil Style Impeller since the reacting environment
contains solid particles [18]. In the fermenter, Rushton turbine
is implemented which is capable of breaking up the air stream
entering through a sparger and providing oxygen for the reaction
[15].
D. Heat Exchangers
Several streams in the process require cooling and heating to
the operating temperature of each. So, 11 heat exchangers were
installed where 10 are for cooling and one for heat integration.
First the sludge is heated using the hot isobutylene to reduce the
amount of high pressure stream used to heat the stream to the
required temperature for pretreatment of 190℃. Then the second
heat exchanger is used to condense the gases in the stream before
hydrolysis. A series of heat exchangers are then used after the
hydrolysis and the recycle stream to cool down the stream to
40℃ for the fermentation to take place. Heat exchangers are
then used to cool down the ethanol and the isobutylene stream
to 90℃ respectively to produce ETBE. Finally, the last set of
heat exchangers were used to cool down the ETBE flow for
storage. The specifications were calculated by iterations and the
material were chosen based on the fluid inside the shell and tube.
They can be found summarized in table VI appendix B.
E. Nanofiltration Membrane
The process stream in need of filtration is flowing at 40℃ and
1 atm. The mass flow rate is almost 173667 kg/hr with 1813.37
kg/hr Na2SO4. This implies that the feed to the filtration unit
contains 10,441.64 ppm of the salt is to be removed.
Research shows that the spiral wound design of a NF
membrane is the most efficient for the removal of sodium sulfate.
Therefore, it was decided to use NF90-4040 model from Dow
Filmtec. One nanofiltration unit can withstand almost 16 gpm
equivalent to 23000 gpd. The process under study requires the
filtration of almost 1152635 gpd of water. Therefore, almost 52
units are needed to remove the salt from the process flow. Figure
5 shows the unit dimensions, where A=1.016m, B=0.027m,
C=0.019m, D=0.099m.
The permeate flow rate is almost 2500 gpd and the applied
pressure is 4.8 bars.
Figure 5. Schematic of NF90-4040 membrane
IV. CONCLUSION
Considering the current Lebanese waste crisis and the market
demand for ETBE, this research paper proposed the design of a
facility that produces ETBE from organic waste. The production
line is composed of several stages: pretreatment and hydrolysis
of biomass, fermentation to produce ethanol, and production of
ETBE and numerous unit operations are involved in the overall
process.
It was found that the four distillation columns used in the
process have sieve trays and were made of stainless steel 304.
The columns’ heights ranged from 3.5m to 33.5m with an
average reflux ratio of 3. The packed bed reactor used to
accomplish the main reaction between isobutylene and
bioethanol contained the catalyst Amberlyst-15. It was deduced
that 15 tubes with a diameter of 0.18m and a height of 1.89m
were needed to reach above 90% conversion.
For the heat exchanges, the number of tubes ranged from 150
to 1400 tubes operating in a counter-current manner. A CSTR is
used on the acidic pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation
stages of the process. They were designed taking into account
the presence of H2SO4 and fragile microorganisms in the
fermentation process. Finally, it was found that an NF90-4040
nanofiltration system composed of 52 units is used to remove
sodium sulfate from the process flow to prevent fouling and
corrosion in later stages.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First and foremost, we would like to thank our advisor Dr.
Mohammad N. Ahmad for his supervision and guidance
throughout the completion of the project and Mr. Adnan Itani
for his advice and support.
Furthermost, we thank our professors in The Department of
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, namely Dr. Joseph
Zeaiter for guiding us through the control and optimization steps
of the plant, Dr. Fouad Azizi for his advice regarding the
simulation and design process, and Dr. Belal Jum’Ah Abu
Tarboush for his assistance in designing the membrane units.
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 APPENDIX A Feed Point 10 37 17 4
Location (1st
TABLE II stage at top)
PARAMETERS FOR THE RATE EQUATIONS Number of 4,300 19,000 12,160 2,196
For Glucose For Xylose Holes
Hole Diameter 5 5 5 5
qp,max 5.12 1.59
(mm)
Ksp 6.32 0.03
Hole Pitch 15 15 15 15
Pmp 75.4 81.2 (mm)
Kip 186 600 Pitch Pattern Triangular Triangular Triangular Triangular
Pip 42.6 53.1
Plate 3 3 3 3
APPENDIX B Thickness
(mm)
TABLE III Column 0.05 0.15 0.21 0.09
REACTION CONDITIONS thickness (in)
Pre-treatment Hydrolysis Fermentation Tray Spacing 0.5 0.3 0.5 0.5
Residence time (m)
1.5 45 120 Downcomer 0.14 0.59 0.38 0.07
(min)
Temperature (°C) 190 150 40 Area (m2)
Pressure (atm) 12 4.5 1 Pressure Drop 1,108 733 1050 708.9
pH Acidic Acidic Neutral (Pa)
Residence 14 8 9 15
Time (s)
TABLE IV Flow Cross Flow Reverse Cross Flow Cross Flow
SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE CSTRS Arrangement (Single Flow (Single (Single
Pass) Pass) Pass)
Pre-treatment Hydrolysis Fermentation
Height, H (m) 5 8 8
Diameter, D (m) 1.5 3 4
Thickness17, t 8.5 7 3 TABLE VI
(mm) SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE HEAT EXCHANGERS
Impeller 0.5 1 2 Number Number Tube Tube Baffle Overall
Diameter, Da (m) of tubes of inner outer spacing Coefficient
Number of 2 3 6 passes diameter diameter U
impeller blades (kJ/h.m2°C)
Distance between 2 2 2 1 350 4 36mm 38mm Ds/3 650
blades (m) 2 470 4 36mm 38mm Ds/3 733
3 150 1 36mm 38mm Ds/5 725
4 1400 4 14.8mm 16mm Ds/2 300
TABLE V
5 500 4 36mm 38mm Ds/5 300
SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE DISTILLATION COLUMNS
6 730 2 14.8mm 16mm Ds/2 300
Parameter C-1 C-2 C-3 C-4 7 700 2 18mm 20mm Ds/3 300
Feed Flowrate 53,692.1 121,431 119,306 53,688 8 1300 4 18mm 20mm Ds/3 300
(kg/h) 9 650 2 18mm 20mm Ds/5 300
Distillate 3,114.1 119,306 96,399 3,114 10 400 2 36mm 38mm Ds/4 500
flowrate (kg/h)
Bottom 50,578 2,125 22,907 50,575
Flowrate
(kg/h)
Reboiler 99.9 38 181 208
Temperature
(°C)
Condenser 78.2 29.3 108 106.5
Temperature
(°C)
Reboiler 1 0.1 20 19.66
Pressure (atm)
Reflux Ratio 3.3 3 2.9 2.8
Column Stainless Stainless Stainless Stainless
Material Steel 304 Steel 304 Steel 304 Steel 304
Column 1.2 2.5 2 0.85
Diameter (m)
Column 7.5 20.1 16 3.5
Height (m)
Column Area 1.13 4.9 3.1 0.57
(m2)
Number of 15 67 32 7
Trays
Trays Type Sieve Sieve Sieve Sieve
Material Stainless Stainless Stainless Stainless
Steel 304 Steel 304 Steel 304 Steel 304