Green Aviation Fuel from Woody Biomass
Abstract:
The purpose of this proposed plant is to design a process that produces synthetic paraffinic kerosene from a woody biomass feedstock. Preliminary research was conducted to understand various elements of the design process, the desired market, availability of resources, as well as potential locations and plant capacity, and then different processes were compared using these considerations to determine the most ideal process. The next step involved developing a Process Flow Diagram (PFD) for the selected process. When constructing the PFD, 3 main sections were identified, the first being biomass pre-treatment via torrefaction as well as gasification, the second section was syngas purification with focus on the water gas shift reaction, but a wet scrubber, mercury removal unit, a rectisol acid gas removal process, as well as sour water stripping and subsequent sulfuric acid gas production were considered, and the final stage includes the Fischer-Tropsch reactors, as well as the main fractionator. With the overall PFD designed, a detailed mass and energy balance was conducted for 3 key units, the gasifier, the water gas shift reactor, and the main fractionator. Then, upon reviewing possible reactor configurations and selecting the best option, a shortcut design calculation was conducted for each of the 3 units to estimate sizing, which in turn allowed an approximate cost for each unit to be determined. The final step will provide a more in-depth design of each unit so that the efficiency and efficacy of each unit can be confirmed. Additionally, more work will need to be done to better understand the smaller units as well as the air separation unit and the cogeneration unit which have not yet been considered.
Students:
Madison Seaver, Jeffrey Langlois, Omar Elbayaa, Bryan Hung
