Synthesis, intensification and optimization of biofuels separation processes

In the coming biomass-based manufacturing and biorefinery for biofuels and high-value added products, the production process technologies are crucial to determine the success and competitive in terms of production costs. Biomass-based process requires complex pretreatment, reaction, upgrading, recovery and purifying making the production process lengthy and expensive. Very often, the separation process in biomass-based manufacturing itself accounts for 50% to 70% of the total production costs.

As biofuels are the promising energy scenarios in liquid transportation fuels for both sustainable development and remedy climate change, at SDU-ChE we are focusing on novel separation processes for bioethanol and biobutanol productions. Process synthesis, intensification and optimization tools are developed at SDU-ChE section to define new possibilities of process integration, hybrid separation processes and intensify unit operations in order to generate optimal production process alternatives.

Recent publication

1. C.E. Torres-Ortega, B.-G.Rong (2016) “Synthesis and simulation of efficient divided wall column sequences for bioethanol recovery and purification from an actual lignocellulosic fermentation broth” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Vol. 55, 7411-7430.
2. M.Errico, E.Sanchez-Ramirez, J.J.Quiroz-Ramirez, J.G. Segovia-Hernandez, B.-G.Rong (2016) “Synthesis and design of new hybrid configurations for biobutanol purification” Computers and Chemical Engineering Vol. 84, 482-492.
3. Torres Ortega, C. E. & Rong, B-G., Synthesis, design and rigorous simulation of the bio-ethanol recovery and dehydration from an actual lignocellulosic fermentation broth, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 55, 210-225, 2016.

Basic publications

1. M.Errico, B.-G.Rong, G. Tola, M. Spano (2013) “Optimal synthesis of distillation systems for bioethanol separation. Part 1: Extractive distillation with simple columns” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Vol. 52, 1612-1619.
2. M.Errico, B.-G.Rong, G. Tola, M. Spano (2013) “Optimal synthesis of distillation systems for bioethanol separation. Part 2: Extractive distillation with complex columns” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Vol. 52, 1620-1626.

For more information please contact:
Associate Professor Ben-Guang Rong
Associate Professor Massimiliano Errico