(307g) Techno-Economic and Environmental Analysis of the Use of Different Biofuel Blends to Obtain Jet Biofuels

Currently, there are concerns to reduce the fossil fuel dependence and therefore new energy sources are being proposed to supply the increasing energy demand. As a consequence, biomass appears as a promising alternative to produce environmentally friendly biofuels with competitive advantages over non-renewable fuels (Moncada, El-Halwagi et al. 2013). Among potential biofuels, bioethanol has become one of the most important biofuels as gasoline additive and widely used in countries such as USA, Brazil and Colombia. Alternatively, biodiesel also has been a popular biofuel, which is essentially composed of methyl or ethyl ester of fatty acids and has been used as an additive in diesel in the transportation sector (Rincón, Hernández et al. 2014). Another important biofuel is biobutanol that has gained visibility in recent years as a replacement for gasoline. Butanol has unique properties as a fuel. The energy content of butanol (99,840 Btu per gallon) is 86% of the energy content of gasoline.

Nowadays, the lignocellulosic biomass is the main source of biofuels because with its content of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin can be produced any amount of products including electricity (Quintero, Rincón et al. 2011). The raw materials to produce biofuels have been developed from first generation feedstocks (agricultural farming), second generation (residuals) and third generation (algae) (Rincón, Moncada et al. 2014). Also these generations of raw materials have been discussed as feedstocks to produce different added value products under the growing concept of biorefineries. In this way, in this work develops a design and analysis of the production of jet biofuel from biomass by means of techno-economic and environmental assessment.

All the integrated processes to produce biofuels and energy from the lignocellulosic biomass are projected in a profitable and sustainable vision within the biorefinery concept. Aspen plus V8.0 was used as computational tool for evaluate the production of jet biofuel for different percentages of ethanol-butanol blends and ethanol-biodiesel blends. WAR GUI software was used for environmental evaluation determining the potential environmental impact (PEI) per kilogram of products. The blend of ethanol and butanol biofuels were made from rice husk. Rice husk has a calorific capacity of 14 MJ/kg and contains 40% of cellulose. Rice husk has ideal particle size and great availability for biofuels production.

The blend of ethanol and biodiesel biofuels were made from Chlorella vulgaris microalgae. C. vulgaris is a microalgae with an equilibrated content of lipids and carbohydrates. On the other hand, ethanol production from husk rice was made with a fermentation of sugars, glucose and xylose by Zymomonas mobilis. Butanol production from husk rice was made with an acetone, butanol and ethanol (ABE) fermentation by Clostridium beijerinckii. Biodiesel production was made from oil of the C. vulgaris microalgae. Ethanol production from C. vulgaris was made of syngas. Syngas was made with gasification of microalgae cake that was obtained of the extraction of microalgae oil.

The quality of ethanol-butanol blend and ethanol-biodiesel blend was analyzed studying the physicochemical properties of the jet biofuel such as density, viscosity and freezing point. To verify these properties, an experimental evaluation was followed. Besides, the properties of the ethanol-butanol blend and ethanol-biodiesel blend were compared with the properties of a conventional jet fuel (jet A-1) obtaining a similar behavior for biofuels, therefore, according to this study, it is possible the use of biofuels in the aeronautic industry.

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Rincón, L. E., V. Hernández, et al. (2014). "Analysis of technological schemes for the efficient production of added-value products from Colombian oleochemical feedstocks." Process Biochemistry 49(3): 474-489.

Rincón, L. E., J. Moncada, et al. (2014). "Analysis of potential technological schemes for the development of oil palm industry in Colombia: A biorefinery point of view." Industrial Crops and Products 52(0): 457-465.