Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
ISSN: 2090-4541
Nasir M A Al-Lagtah
Newcastle University International Singapore, Singapore
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
Recently, energy crisis has become a main issue as the global energy demand is increasing while the crude oil reserves are depleting as the time passes. Therefore it is necessary to find alternative and renewable energy sources. Biofuels are very promising renewable energy source. Bioethanol is a biofuel which is mostly used as an automobile fuel. During the production of bioethanol, large amount of lignin is produced as a by-product. Lignin has a great potential to produce valuable products to increase the overall revenue. In this research, lignin has been utilized for methanol production and power generation through gasification process or for producing activated carbon, methanol and power through pyrolysis process. Both processes were simulated using Aspen Plus software. Lignin gasification process converted about 51% of lignin into methanol. On the other hand, lignin pyrolysis process converted about 9% of lignin into methanol and 20.5% into activated carbon. Heat integration of both processes resulted into producing surplus of steam which was utilized to meet some of the processes utility requirements along with power generation using steam turbines. Economic analysis of two processes showed that capital investment and payback period of lignin pyrolysis process was significantly higher. Therefore, lignin gasification process was considered to be more economically feasible.
Email: nasir.al-lagtah@ncl.ac.uk