Browsing by Author "Awani, Kelvin"

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    Carbon emissions and decarbonisation: the role and relevance of fermentation industry in chemical sector
    (Elsevier, 2023-10-07) Agrawal, Deepti; Awani, Kelvin; Nabavi, Seyed Ali; Balan, Venkatesh; Jin, Mingjie; Aminabhavi, Tejraj M.; Dubey, Kashyap Kumar; Kumar, Vinod
    Fermentation industry is emerging as sustainable technological alternative to cater the production of various chemical building blocks which are commercially manufactured by petrochemical route. The primary reason for this major transition is global commitment towards decarbonisation of chemical sector, as their conventional fossil-based routes pose serious environmental threat. For instance, in 2022, the direct carbon dioxide (CO2) emission during synthesis of primary chemicals accounted for ∼ 920 Mt. CO2 is one of the prominent greenhouse gases (GHG’s), contributing majorly towards global warming effect and drastic climate change. Fermentation industry largely thrives on exploiting fermentable and organic carbon derived from edible and/or non-edible biomass and transforming them to valorised products using microbial cell factories. Therefore, the production of bio-based chemicals via this route is often associated with low or zero-carbon footprint, resulting in either carbon neutral or carbon negative products. This review focuses on different types of fermentative processes and their impact on carbon release and decarbonisation. It further discusses the relevance and contribution of fermentation industry as well as biological processes to provide a sustainable solution towards decarbonisation of chemical sector. Further, it showcases the advantages of some commercial proven and/or pipeline bio-based products over their conventional competitor fossil-based products, especially from an environmental viewpoint. Finally, advantages of biogenic CO2 from fermentation industry over other sources and CO2 removal from fermentation as a platform for carbon offsetting are covered.
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    Techno-economic assessment of decarbonization pathways for a gas to liquid facility: a review
    (Elsevier, 2024-12-01) Awani, Kelvin; Hanak, Dawid; Kumar, Vinod; Nabavi, Seyed Ali
    An overview of gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuels which explores various approaches to decarbonizing gas-to-liquid facilities is here presented. The review discusses optimization of heat integration in the air separation unit (ASU) to reduce energy requirements, the implementation of loop reactor concepts and gas-to-liquid looping to decrease CO2 emissions, the use of amine absorber/stripper systems and reforming configurations to enhance CO2 consumption, and the utilization of staged Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactors to improve CO2 recovery and tail gas recycle performance. The integration of gas-to-liquid processes with power plants and ammonia/urea synthesis plants is also examined as a means of utilizing CO2 and improving process economics. The review further highlights the potential of power-based oxygen and hydrogen in biomass-to-liquid (BtL) processes for higher carbon efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Techno-economic assessments were reviewed to evaluate the feasibility and profitability of different decarbonization pathways, considering factors such as capital and operational expenditures, product prices, internal rates of return (IRR), and carbon efficiency. The review identified challenges in water treatment and hydrogen purification for gas-to-liquid and small-scale gas-to-liquid plants. The findings emphasized the need for a comprehensive framework to mitigate CO2 emissions from gas-to-liquid facilities and facilitate the effective decarbonization of the oil and gas industry.