Authors : Carlos Espinosa, Brigette Arrieta, Angel Dario Gonzalez-Delgado, Karina Ojeda and Eduardo Sanchez
Abstract: African palm fruit (Elaeis guineensis) has become one of the most widely studied and implemented raw material for vegetable oil production which is mainly used as food source and as a feedstock for biodiesel, production, however, unidirectional behavior of production chain causes waste accumulation and economic losses. In this research is presented an integrated biorefinery scheme based on oil palm fruit as raw material for the biobutanol and biohydrogen production, through simulation of each stage of the process using the commercial software UNISIM design. Technical analysis and environmental assessment using WAR algorithm were performed for five scenarios with different combinations of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (OPEFB) and Palm Pressed Fiber (PPF) in order to ensure the feasibility of its implementation at industrial scale as an alternative to expand the production chain. The best scenario resulting from this study was the mixture of OPEFB and PPF in a ratio 50:50 with a production rate of 6.900 kg/h of biobutanol, 680 kg/h of biohydrogen and 3.000 kg/h of other high value products. An environmental sustainability index (PEI) of 3.06/kg of product for the best scenario was obtained. Finally by energy integration, the potential for heating and cooling services saving was 9.5 and 92.2%, respectively. Environmental impact was reduced after the energy integration which shows that the integral use of the palm fruit through conversion processes in an integrated biorefinery is a technical and environmentally viable alternative to obtain biobutanol and biohydrogen as main products.
Carlos Espinosa, Brigette Arrieta, Angel Dario Gonzalez-Delgado, Karina Ojeda and Eduardo Sanchez, 2018. Technical and Environmental Evaluation of an Integrated Biorefinery from Residual Biomass of Oil Palm Fruit to obtain Biobutanol and Biohydrogen. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 13: 533-540.