Techno-economic viability of bio-based methyl ethyl ketone production from sugarcane using integrated fermentative and chemo-catalytic approach: process integration using pinch technology

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorVarma, Abhishek R.
dc.contributor.authorShrirame, Bhushan S.
dc.contributor.authorGadkari, Siddharth
dc.contributor.authorVanapalli, Kumar Raja
dc.contributor.authorKumar, Vinod
dc.contributor.authorMaity, Sunil K.
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-15T15:19:15Z
dc.date.available2024-05-15T15:19:15Z
dc.date.issued2024-04-24
dc.description.abstractButanediols are versatile platform chemicals that can be transformed into a spectrum of valuable products. This study examines the techno-commercial feasibility of an integrated biorefinery for fermentative production of 2,3-butanediol (BDO) from sucrose of sugarcane (SC), followed by chemo-catalytic upgrading of BDO to a carbon-conservative derivative, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), with established commercial demand. The techno-economics of three process configurations are compared for downstream MEK separation from water and co-product, isobutyraldehyde (IBA): (I) heterogeneous azeotropic distillation of MEK-water and extractive separation of (II) MEK and (III) MEK-IBA from water using p-xylene as a solvent. The thermal efficiency of these manufacturing processes is further improved using pinch technology. The implementation of pinch technology reduces 8% of BDO and 9–10% of MEK production costs. Despite these improvements, raw material and utility costs remain substantial. The capital expenditure is notably higher for MEK production from SC than BDO alone due to additional processing steps. The extraction based MEK separation is the simplest process configuration despite marginally higher capital requirements and utility consumption with slightly higher production costs than MEK-water azeotropic distillation. Economic analysis suggests that bio-based BDO is cost-competitive with its petrochemical counterpart, with a minimum gross unitary selling price of US$ 1.54, assuming a 15% internal rate of return over five-year payback periods. However, renewable MEK is approximately 16–24% costlier than the petrochemical route. Future strategies must focus on reducing feedstock costs, improving BDO fermentation efficacy, and developing a low-cost downstream separation process to make renewable MEK commercially viable.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationVarma AR, Shrirame BS, Gadkari S, et al., (2024) Techno-economic viability of bio-based methyl ethyl ketone from sugarcane using integrated fermentative and chemo-catalytic approach: process integration using pinch technology. Chemical Engineering Journal, Volume 489, June 2024, Article number 151297en_UK
dc.identifier.eissn1873-3212
dc.identifier.issn1385-8947
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.151297
dc.identifier.urihttps://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/21626
dc.language.isoen_UKen_UK
dc.publisherElsevieren_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subject2,3-Butanediolen_UK
dc.subjectMethyl ethyl ketoneen_UK
dc.subjectSugarcaneen_UK
dc.subjectPinch technologyen_UK
dc.subjectTechno-economic analysisen_UK
dc.titleTechno-economic viability of bio-based methyl ethyl ketone production from sugarcane using integrated fermentative and chemo-catalytic approach: process integration using pinch technologyen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK
dcterms.dateAccepted2024-04-13

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Techno-economic_viability-2024.pdf
Size:
2.63 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.63 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Staff publications (SWEE)