IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v297y2021ics0306261921006139.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Techno-economic and energetic assessment of an innovative pilot-scale thermosyphon-assisted falling film distillation unit for sanitizer-grade ethanol recovery

Author

Listed:
  • Battisti, Rodrigo
  • Galeazzi, Andrea
  • Prifti, Kristiano
  • Manenti, Flavio
  • Machado, Ricardo Antonio Francisco
  • Marangoni, Cintia

Abstract

The increasing demand for ethanol-based disinfectants due to the COVID-19 pandemic has driven the emergence of innovative strategies to avoid the risk of shortage and reduce production costs. Distillation is well-known as the major energy consumer and cost driver for ethanol recovery in conventional distilleries. Our research team has been developing a novel heat-intensified falling film distillation apparatus assisted by a two-phase closed thermosyphon, patented as Destubcal. Therefore, this study aims to provide a techno-economic and energetic assessment of the pilot-scale thermosyphon-assisted falling film distillation unit applied to recover sanitizer-grade ethanol with 70 vol% in alcohol. Performance analysis showed that under a feed flow rate of 14L/h, a feed temperature of 80 °C, and an evaporator temperature of 93 °C, the pilot-scale unit reaches the minimum specific thermal energy consumption with the maximum distillate ethanol recovery and energy efficiency (88.5%). The impact of the elements in the capital cost-share showed instrumentation and control (27.8%), and piping and auxiliary equipment (27.6%) as the predominant capital costs, while the cost for major process equipment represents only 6.2% which reveals a low-cost and easy-to-implement technology. The major operating cost-driver is the labor (51.3%) since the pilot-scale unit has a lower capacity than industrial plants. However, the Destubcal unit spends on utility costs about 31.6$/m3feed, which represents a total saving of 43.8% compared to conventional distilleries. Furthermore, the Destubcal unit saves about 1.78 MJ/kg (46.4%), with 59.2% less column height than a conventional column, being considered techno-economically feasible for sanitizer-grade ethanol recovery.

Suggested Citation

  • Battisti, Rodrigo & Galeazzi, Andrea & Prifti, Kristiano & Manenti, Flavio & Machado, Ricardo Antonio Francisco & Marangoni, Cintia, 2021. "Techno-economic and energetic assessment of an innovative pilot-scale thermosyphon-assisted falling film distillation unit for sanitizer-grade ethanol recovery," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:297:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921006139
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261921006139
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117185?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanno Richter & Michael E. Martin & Largus T. Angenent, 2013. "A Two-Stage Continuous Fermentation System for Conversion of Syngas into Ethanol," Energies, MDPI, vol. 6(8), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Khan, Ershad Ullah & Nordberg, Åke, 2019. "Thermal integration of membrane distillation in an anaerobic digestion biogas plant – A techno-economic assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 1163-1174.
    3. Ranjan, K.R. & Kaushik, S.C., 2013. "Energy, exergy and thermo-economic analysis of solar distillation systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 709-723.
    4. Kunnakorn, D. & Rirksomboon, T. & Siemanond, K. & Aungkavattana, P. & Kuanchertchoo, N. & Chuntanalerg, P. & Hemra, K. & Kulprathipanja, S. & James, R.B. & Wongkasemjit, S., 2013. "Techno-economic comparison of energy usage between azeotropic distillation and hybrid system for water–ethanol separation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 310-316.
    5. Goldemberg, José & Coelho, Suani Teixeira & Guardabassi, Patricia, 2008. "The sustainability of ethanol production from sugarcane," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2086-2097, June.
    6. Vasconcelos, Marcelo Holanda & Mendes, Fernanda Machado & Ramos, Lucas & Dias, Marina Oliveira S. & Bonomi, Antonio & Jesus, Charles Dayan F. & Watanabe, Marcos Djun B. & Junqueira, Tassia Lopes & Mil, 2020. "Techno-economic assessment of bioenergy and biofuel production in integrated sugarcane biorefinery: Identification of technological bottlenecks and economic feasibility of dilute acid pretreatment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    7. Wen, Tao & Lu, Lin & He, Weifeng & Min, Yunran, 2020. "Fundamentals and applications of CFD technology on analyzing falling film heat and mass exchangers: A comprehensive review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    8. Frankó, Balázs & Galbe, Mats & Wallberg, Ola, 2016. "Bioethanol production from forestry residues: A comparative techno-economic analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 727-736.
    9. Kabeel, A.E. & Hamed, A.M. & El-Agouz, S.A., 2010. "Cost analysis of different solar still configurations," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 2901-2908.
    10. Starfelt, Fredrik & Daianova, Lilia & Yan, Jinyue & Thorin, Eva & Dotzauer, Erik, 2012. "The impact of lignocellulosic ethanol yields in polygeneration with district heating – A case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 791-799.
    11. Nakashima, R.N. & de Oliveira Junior, S., 2020. "Comparative exergy assessment of vinasse disposal alternatives: Concentration, anaerobic digestion and fertirrigation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 1969-1978.
    12. Aniya, Vineet & De, Debiparna & Singh, Ashish & Satyavathi, B., 2018. "Design and operation of extractive distillation systems using different class of entrainers for the production of fuel grade tert-butyl Alcohol:A techno-economic assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1013-1025.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Junjie & Zhang, Yueling & Yang, Yanli & Zhang, Xiaomei & Wang, Nana & Zheng, Yonghong & Tian, Yajun & Xie, Kechang, 2022. "Life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis of ethanol production via coal and its competitors: A comparative study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jain, Sanyam & Kumar, Shushil, 2024. "A comprehensive review of bioethanol production from diverse feedstocks: Current advancements and economic perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    2. Nayi, Kuldeep H. & Modi, Kalpesh V., 2018. "Pyramid solar still: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 136-148.
    3. He Fu & Min Dai & Hanwen Song & Xiaoting Hou & Fahid Riaz & Shuai Li & Ke Yang & Imran Ali & Changsheng Peng & Muhammad Sultan, 2021. "Updates on Evaporation and Condensation Methods for the Performance Improvement of Solar Stills," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-26, October.
    4. Avelino Gonçalves, Fabiano & dos Santos, Everaldo Silvino & de Macedo, Gorete Ribeiro, 2015. "Use of cultivars of low cost, agroindustrial and urban waste in the production of cellulosic ethanol in Brazil: A proposal to utilization of microdistillery," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1287-1303.
    5. Deborah Bentivoglio & Adele Finco & Mirian Rumenos Piedade Bacchi, 2016. "Interdependencies between Biofuel, Fuel and Food Prices: The Case of the Brazilian Ethanol Market," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-16, June.
    6. Calise, Francesco & Cipollina, Andrea & Dentice d’Accadia, Massimo & Piacentino, Antonio, 2014. "A novel renewable polygeneration system for a small Mediterranean volcanic island for the combined production of energy and water: Dynamic simulation and economic assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 675-693.
    7. Mariana S. T. Amândio & Joana M. Pereira & Jorge M. S. Rocha & Luísa S. Serafim & Ana M. R. B. Xavier, 2022. "Getting Value from Pulp and Paper Industry Wastes: On the Way to Sustainability and Circular Economy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-31, June.
    8. Miladi, Rihab & Frikha, Nader & Gabsi, Slimane, 2017. "Exergy analysis of a solar-powered vacuum membrane distillation unit using two models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 872-883.
    9. Katia A. Figueroa-Rodríguez & Francisco Hernández-Rosas & Benjamín Figueroa-Sandoval & Joel Velasco-Velasco & Noé Aguilar Rivera, 2019. "What Has Been the Focus of Sugarcane Research? A Bibliometric Overview," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-15, September.
    10. El-Agouz, S.A. & Abd El-Aziz, G.B. & Awad, A.M., 2014. "Solar desalination system using spray evaporation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 276-283.
    11. Felipe Godoy Righetto & Carlos Eduardo Keutenedjian Mady, 2023. "Exergy Analysis of a Sugarcane Crop: A Planting-to-Harvest Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-14, October.
    12. Shoeibi, Shahin & Rahbar, Nader & Esfahlani, Ahad Abedini & Kargarsharifabad, Hadi, 2021. "Energy matrices, exergoeconomic and enviroeconomic analysis of air-cooled and water-cooled solar still: Experimental investigation and numerical simulation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 227-244.
    13. Daraei, Mahsa & Avelin, Anders & Dotzauer, Erik & Thorin, Eva, 2019. "Evaluation of biofuel production integrated with existing CHP plants and the impacts on production planning of the system – A case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Rathmann, Régis & Szklo, Alexandre & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2010. "Land use competition for production of food and liquid biofuels: An analysis of the arguments in the current debate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 14-22.
    15. Souza, Simone Pereira & Nogueira, Luiz Augusto Horta & Martinez, Johan & Cortez, Luis Augusto Barbosa, 2018. "Sugarcane can afford a cleaner energy profile in Latin America & Caribbean," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 164-172.
    16. Moraes, Marcia A.F.D. & Nassar, Andre M. & Moura, Paula & Leal, Rodrigo L.V. & Cortez, L.A.B., 2014. "Jet biofuels in Brazil: Sustainability challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 716-726.
    17. Halkos, George E. & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2014. "The effect of electricity consumption from renewable sources on countries׳ economic growth levels: Evidence from advanced, emerging and developing economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 166-173.
    18. Takahiro Nakashima & Keiichiro Ueno & Eisuke Fujita & Shoko Ishikawa, 2020. "Evaluation of Polyethylene Mulching and Sugarcane Cultivar on Energy Inputs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Ethanol Production in a Temperate Climate," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-17, August.
    19. Clauser, Nicolás M. & Felissia, Fernando E. & Area, María C. & Vallejos, María E., 2021. "A framework for the design and analysis of integrated multi-product biorefineries from agricultural and forestry wastes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    20. Marcos Adami & Bernardo Friedrich Theodor Rudorff & Ramon Morais Freitas & Daniel Alves Aguiar & Luciana Miura Sugawara & Marcio Pupin Mello, 2012. "Remote Sensing Time Series to Evaluate Direct Land Use Change of Recent Expanded Sugarcane Crop in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-12, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:297:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921006139. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.