See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/268517830

Simulation of Biomethanol Production from Green Syngas Through

Sustainable Process Design

Conference Paper · August 2014

DOI: 10.5220/0005002906770684

CITATIONS READS

5 5,490

3 authors:

Omar Y. Abdelaziz Mamdouh Gadalla

Lund University Port Said University
34 PUBLICATIONS   254 CITATIONS    97 PUBLICATIONS   1,162 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Fatma HANAFY Ashour

Cairo University
38 PUBLICATIONS   232 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Annual conference this year on the theme (Sustainable Vital Technologies in Engineering and Informatics) from 8-10 November 2016. View project

Sustainable production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil in Egypt View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Mamdouh Gadalla on 05 February 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Simulation of Biomethanol Production from Green Syngas Through
Sustainable Process Design

Omar Y. Abdelaziz1, Mamdouh A. Gadalla2 and Fatma H. Ashour1

1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, the British University, Cairo11837, Egypt

Keywords: Biomethanol, Process Simulation, Process Design, Rice Straw, Biorefinery.

Abstract: Methanol is considered an alternative energy source due to its various applicability and high octane. As a
fuel, it releases low emissions, and shows high performance and low risk of flammability. Egypt faces a
high population growth rate, which implies an increase in the agricultural production. At present, the
agriculture waste materials are burned leading to major environmental problems besides the loss of potential
resources. This work builds a design methodology for producing biomethanol fuel from green syngas. The
design methodology is based on rigorous model using the Aspen HYSYS® simulation software, and takes
into account both economics and environment. As a case study, the design methodology is applied to design
a plant that converts rice straw in Egypt into methanol. The raw materials for this process are selected from
the major regions in Egypt producing rice straw with a total capacity of 1.6 million tons per year. These
local regions are Kafr el Sheikh, Dakahlia and Sharkia governorates, located in northern part to Cairo. The
methanol produced from the process is estimated to be around 156 thousand metric tons per annum. The
process equipment capital costs are estimated to be 498 million dollars with total energy costs of 17 million
dollars per annum. On the other hand, an annual revenue of 537 million dollars is obtained. The simulation
model obtained in this study can be applied to any syngas coming from other gasification processes with
different biomass feedstock. In addition, the model provides a robust basis for further studies of process
integration leading to innovative and sustainable solutions to climatic and energy problems.

1 INTRODUCTION significance of gasification has grown up to convert

biomass into gas or liquid valuable materials. The
Major environmental and economic problems as motivating factors of gasification can be
global warming, climatic changes, and oil prices summarized as its renewability, environmental
fluctuating are caused by fossil fuels. These facts consciousness and sociopolitical benefits (Basu,
drive the energy sector towards finding sustainable 2010). As a result, different gasifier designs
and innovative solutions. Biofuels arose as an differing in the biomass pyrolysis and tar cracking
effective alternative for the fossil fuels as a cleaner mechanisms have been evolved. Researchers have
renewable source of energy with fewer conducted different experimental setups and
environmental impacts. Thinking of new process changed various parameters via gasification on
designs to reach sustainable goals is a challenge that different biomass feed stocks (Mertzis et al., 2014;
all industries must face. Olgun et al., 2011; Patil et al., 2011; Simone et al.,
Second generation biofuels derived from 2013; Xie et al., 2014).
lignocellulosic feedstocks are promising alternative It was stated by the Egyptian Central Agency for
for energy that concerns environment (Damartzis Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS, 2012)
and Zabaniotou, 2011). Many innovative that the rice production in Egypt rose 31.2% in the
technologies such as gasification and Fischer– year 2011 reaching some 5.6 million tons, compared
Tropsch synthesis created many opportunities for with 4.3 million tons for 2010. Experts say that such
thermochemical conversion of biomass into biofuels. a production will generate more than 30 million tons
Gasification is considered as ancient as combustion, of waste per year. This will consequently lead to
although it is less developed since combustion is major environmental problems as these wastes are
dominant in its applications. Recently, the currently burned leading to what is called the black

Abdelaziz O., Gadalla M. and Ashour F..

Simulation of Biomethanol Production from Green Syngas Through Sustainable Process Design.
DOI: 10.5220/0005002906770684
677
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications (SIMULTECH-2014),
pages 677-684
ISBN: 978-989-758-038-3
Copyright c 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
SIMULTECH2014-4thInternationalConferenceonSimulationandModelingMethodologies,Technologiesand
Applications

cloud phenomena experienced in Egypt recently. purification of this H2 stream can be considered.
Finding solutions to such problem is a critical issue. Also, the CO2 circulating in the process demands
Methanol is considered as a liquid fuel that can high amount of energy. This calls for removal from
be used in fuel cells and as a chemical feed-stock in the syngas stream. Further, the presence of water
addition to its use as a transportation liquid fuel circulating in the process leads to high energy
(Yang et al., 2004). Most methanol plants built all wastage. This also calls for purification of the
over the world use natural gas for generation of syngas stream. Hence, the following structural
syngas to produce methanol. The scope of process modifications are proposed based on the above
system engineering is increasing so as to achieve recommendations: installation of a separation unit to
more sustainable processes (Jegatheesan et al., improve the H2 purity in the waste gas stream and
2009). Design of plants converting biomass to purification of the syngas feed stream by removing
methanol is challenging; most existing design CO2 and water components.
approaches are just in the form of simulations to the In this design the Aspen HYSYS Ver. 7.3
process and have not been commercialized yet. Few process simulator is used to model the given
researches (Abu Bakar et al., 2013; Bula et al., 2012; process. Other process simulators can be employed
Kumabe et al., 2008; Shabangu et al., 2014) have such as Aspen Plus, PRO/II, VMG, etc. The given
simulated the methanol production from different process is simulated on the basis of converting a
biomass feed stocks. The syngas required to produce certain amount of syngas into green methanol fuel.
biomethanol could be attained from the process that In this stage the feed streams are specified, and the
includes pre-treatment of the biomass, gasification flow process design is described, further mass and
according to the biomass physical characteristics, energy balances are performed. Finally individual
cleaning of the gas produced, and the final methanol process equipments are designed. As a result of this
catalytic synthesis (Minteer, 2006). It is obvious that stage, temperatures, pressures, and flows of all
tackling the environmental problems of biomass process streams and products are obtained in
residues is essential and requires design addition to equipment dimensions, and heat and
methodologies and procedures. cooling duties.
The objective of this work is to build a design Process economics is considered in the
methodology for producing methanol from biomass. proceeding stage. Equipment capital costs, total
The new design methodology is rigorous simulation- utilities costs, and raw material costs are estimated.
based and applicable to methanol production from Finally the total profit is calculated. CAPCOST, a
any source of biomass. Aspen Hysys simulator powerful tool for evaluating full process economics
(Hysys User Guide, 2004) is adopted to model the and profitability is used (Turton et al., 2009). In this
production plant. The simulation model achieved in stage it is easy to assess the process feasibility.
the study is robust and can help for further After reaching a base case design with the
investigation studies, such as optimization, process associated economics, the environmental
integration, dynamic control, sensitivity analysis, implications of the process is to be considered
scaling, etc. As a case study, the design consciousnessly. In this stage of design emissions
methodology is applied to design a plant that from the process is to be estimated also the potential
produces methanol from rice straw in Egypt. characterization of waste water is to be considered.
The aim of this stage is to reduce the local and
global CO2 emissions in addition to minimizing the
2 DESIGN AND SIMULATION release of harmful compounds from the process to
the atmosphere.
METHODOLOGY While the environment is considered in the
earlier phase, the energies of all process streams are
Conventionally biomethanol is produced from the to be integrated with the objective of minimizing the
synthesis gas that is rich in hydrogen and carbon energy demands of all the process. Pinch Analysis
monoxide through a heterogeneous catalysis and heat integration principles are to be applied to
mechanism. Figure 1 shows the ordinary process attain the best heat exchanger network (HEN) where
flow schematic diagram for biomethanol production minimum amount of utility requirements are
from biomass gasification (Ohlstrom, 2001). In this required. An ideal solution of this phase is an
study some critical points are identified during the optimum heat integrated process.
process design: The low purity of H2 in the waste Either the base case design or the environmental
gas stream seems to be unsuitable for reuse. Thus, based design is to be optimized by manipulating the

678
 SimulationofBiomethanolProductionfromGreenSyngasThroughSustainableProcessDesign

operating and design parameters of the process to 2.2 Syngas Adjustment Stage
minimize multiple objectives. These optimization
objectives may include the total costs, utility Methanol is one of the most important basic
requirements, CO2 emissions or any other objective. chemicals that can be produced using synthesis gas
The sections below detail the new design (a mixture of CO, CO2 and H2). The typical
methodology. methanol process involves a reaction of syngas in
the presence of metal catalyst followed by
N2
purification of the methanol. Here the feed is syngas
O2
Air PSA Steam produced from biomass gasification which totally
Biomas
O2
reformed differs from the syngas coming from the natural gas
Steam in properties and conditions. The high percentage of
CO2
Pretreatment Gasification nitrogen found in the gas has to be separated first,
WGSR
and then the syngas is sent to the reformer to convert
Ash the existing methane to extra syngas. Water gas shift
Removal of reactor adjusts the reactor feed requirements by
Distillation Methanol Synthesis CO2, H2O, providing the required amount of hydrogen through
and H2S
the water gas shift reaction. Water and CO2 are
HRSG
removed, and then the make-up stream is ready to be
mixed with the recycle stream, and further fed to the
Figure 1: Schematic for biomethanol production from reactor. In one pass only, thermodynamic
biomass. equilibrium is reached before achieving 50%
conversion of the synthesis gas, therefore, after
2.1 Simulation Procedure and methanol and water are condensed out and removed,
the remaining synthesis gas must be recycled to the
Algorithm reactor. Adjustment stages are discussed in this
section.
Figure 2 summarizes the simulation algorithm for
biomethanol production from biomass. As shown in 2.2.1 Nitrogen Separation
the figure the algorithm illustrates the main phases
of simulation design. It starts by the biomass Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) can be a cost-
gasification reaching the green syngas production, effective method of onsite nitrogen generation for a
and then follows to the process simulation part wide range of purity and flow requirements. So it is
through the model validation, analysis, costing and used to separate 97.5 mole% of nitrogen that exists;
optimization. More details will be presented in the separation is assumed to be ideal in which the
following sections. separated nitrogen stream is pure nitrogen.
START
2.2.2 Methane Reformer
Biomass Feedstock
(Rice straw, Rice husk, Wood, etc.) Since most biomass gasifiers produce significant
amount of methane and small amounts of other light
Gasification Model
hydrocarbons, it is wise to use them to produce extra
Syngas
No Process amount syngas through steam reforming. The
Simulation reaction is carried out according to the following
Model
highly endothermic reaction:
Validation CH H O ↔ CO 3H (1)
Yes
Analysis of Results
Acceptable conversion is achieved only at
relatively high temperatures (>800°C), conventional
Costing steam reformers operate at temperature of up to
1000°C. Since the total number of moles of gas
Optimization
increases significantly throughout the reaction,
END reforming is also favored at lower pressures (1-
3.5MPa). Methane conversion in biomass systems
Figure 2: Simulation algorithm for methanol production varies from 60-90% using Ni-based catalyst. Steam
from biomass. is required not only for promoting the reaction but

679
SIMULTECH2014-4thInternationalConferenceonSimulationandModelingMethodologies,Technologiesand
Applications

also to prevent carbon formation (coking), for that 2.2.6 Compression

steam to carbon ratio are recommended to be ≥ 3:1
which is achieved in the model. After leaving the carbon-dioxide membrane, dry
syngas enters the syngas compressor at 13 atm
2.2.3 Water Gas Shift Reactor where it is compressed to 50 atm, the pressure at
which the proposed low pressure Lurgi methanol
Syngas out of the reformer is then cooled before synthesis reactor operates. Inter-cooling appears
being sent to a shift reactor that converts CO to H2 between the two compressors so as to decrease the
via the water-gas shift reaction: net power consumption.
CO H O ⇄ CO H (2)
2.2.7 Pre-reactor Heating
For methanol synthesis, the shift reactor is used
to increase H2 to CO ratio which is found to be After the make-up stream in compressed and mixed
essential in this process. Since the shift reaction is with the recycle stream, and before sending the
exothermic, higher conversion levels are achieved at syngas to the methanol reactor, it is heated close to
lower temperatures. The reaction nearly proceeds to the temperature in the methanol reactor (260oC).
completion with modern catalysts (ZnO-CuO) at This is necessary as temperatures lower than this
temperatures as low as 200°C. In this process, only reaction temperature has the problem of low
60% conversion is required to achieve the purpose equilibrium constants (slow reactions). Also catalyst
of having proper hydrogen amount in the make-up activity drops off sharply below 230°C (Katofsky,
gas. The water gas shift reactor (WGSR) operates at 1993).
200°C, design parameters is adjusted to reach the
required conversion. In this model no steam was 2.3 Reaction Modeling
added to the shift reactor, the amount of steam in the
feed was already sufficient due to the extra steam Feed syngas enters methanol reactor at temperature
added in the reformer. of 260 oC and pressure of 50 atm in the presence of
metal catalyst most common commercially is the
2.2.4 Water Removal (Cu–ZnO–Al2O3). Two successive reactions take
place in the reactor:
To reduce the water content in the syngas stream, a
condensation-separation process was proposed. At CO 2H ⇌ CH OH (3)
pressure of 13 bar cooling the water to 110 oC is CO 3H ⇌ CH OH H O (4)
necessary so as to condense only the water rather
Since all of the above reactions are exothermic
than other compounds flowing in the stream.
reactions, heat removal from the reactor is a critical
2.2.5 CO2 Removal issue. Water gas shift reaction may slightly occur
during the methanol synthesis which is ignored in
The CO hydrogenation reaction is considered to be this design. Single pass conversion in the methanol
the primary reaction in methanol formation. CO2 reactor ranges from 40 to 60 percent of CO and CO2.
hydrogenation reaction results in the loss of some of To increase the conversion, the un-reacted gases
the hydrogen as water that is why in ideal after methanol condensation are recycled back to the
circumstances there would be no CO2 in the feed. reactor, in which up to 99.5 percent overall
However small amount of CO2 (1-2%) acts as a conversion can be achieved (Vaswani, 2000).
promoter of the primary methanol synthesis and Although modern methanol synthesis catalysts are
helps maintain catalyst activity. As a matter of fact, highly selective, some side reactions are possible,
the use of membrane process for CO2 removal from such as:
syngas has been commercially available (Membrane 2CH OH ⇄ CH OCH H O (5)
Technology & Research, 2010a). Using such
CO H ⇄ CH O (6)
technology, CO2 recovery with up to 80% at 95%
purity on volume basis can be obtained. In this 2nH nCO ⇄ C H OH n 1 H O (7)
process 85% of the CO2 found in the gas stream out
The formation of these species is limited by the
of the separator is assumed to be removed.
selectivity of the catalyst and the kinetics at the
reactor conditions. For simplicity, this model
considers dimethyl-ether as the only side product in
the system; the amount of dimethyl-ether produced

680
 SimulationofBiomethanolProductionfromGreenSyngasThroughSustainableProcessDesign

is typically equal 2% wt of the methanol produced. to 11.2 atm for the removal of uncondensed gases
The make-up gas should be slightly hydrogen rich to and to allow the separation of the DME tower at this
compensate the hydrogen consumed by reactions operating pressure feed to the distillation column is
and also that is lost in the purge stream. The quantity at the boiling point of DME (45oC) at 11.2 atm. It is
of hydrogen in the make-up gas stream must satisfy assumed that complete recovery of DME takes place
the stoichiometry of both methanol synthesis in the top product. Water and methanol are assumed
reactions, and this could be typically determined by to leave as bottoms of DME distillation column at
the R-value which should be 2 or more: 45oC. Fifteen trays, and with reflux ratio of 20 are
H CO able to perform the distillation process. The bottom
R 2 (8) exit from the DME distillation column consists of
CO CO
CH3OH and H2O at 11.6 bar and 157.2oC, the
Due to hydrogen build up, the actual combined pressure of this stream is first reduced to 3.4 atm
R-value (make-up + recycle) reached more than 4 in (the pressure at which methanol distillation occurs),
this model. Table 1 summarizes all reactors data. and then it is cooled to 45°C.The exit stream from
pre-methanol distillation column valve enters
2.4 Product Purification methanol distillation column at 45oC and 3.4 atm. It
is assumed that 99.9 percent recovery of methanol in
Stream out of the reactor is cooled to 45°C. CH3OH, top product takes place producing 99.9 percent pure
DME and H2O condense out of the product gases. It methanol on weight basis. Water with a trace
is assumed that a complete condensation of these quantity of methanol is recovered at the bottom.
components takes place. Other components entering Forty-five trays, and with reflux ratio of 1.5 are able
the condenser leave as gases. Uncondensed gases to perform the distillation process.
like CH4, N2, un-reacted CO, un-reacted CO2 and The above algorithm and simulation procedure
un-reacted H2 are removed in a flash drum at the top will be applied to address a local environmental
as a purge. problem in north Egypt. A case study will be
Then part of it (molar recycle ratio considered in the following section.
approximately 4 of the makeup feed) is recycled
back to the reactor and the other part is used to
produce the pure hydrogen. The liquid fraction is
taken out at the bottom and it mainly consists of
3 CASE STUDY
CH3OH, DME and H2O. A membrane process for
The raw materials for the case study are selected
H2 purification has also been widely used in the
refineries. The process has been claimed to be able from the major regions in Egypt producing rice
straw with a total capacity of 1.6 million tons per
to recover up to 95% of H2 at 99% purity on volume
basis (Membrane Technology & Research, 2010b). year. These local regions are Kafr el Sheikh,
Hence, these alternatives were implemented in the Dakahlia and Sharkia governorates, located in
northern part to Cairo (Bakker, 2011). After
HYSYS model of the base case process simulation.
In pre-distillation pressure relief valve, the pressure gasification, the amount of volatile matter which is
of the outlet stream from the condenser is reduced mainly syngas represents about 60% of the biomass
feed (Basu, 2010), so that the synthetic gas feed to
from 41.4 atm to 11.2 atm for the removal of
uncondensed gases and to allow the separation of the methanol synthesis process (from gasifier) can be
DME tower at this operating pressure. Liquid out calculated to be 0.96 million tons per year. In this
study 300 operational days are assumed per year.
from the separator post the reactor enters a relief
valve in which the pressure is reduced from 41.4 atm Table 2 and Table 3 show an approximation for the

Table 1: Reactor simulation data.

Reaction Reactions equations Conversion (%) Reactor

Steam Reforming CH4+H2O CO+3H2 85 Steam Reforming
WGSR CO+H2O CO2+H2 60 WGSR
CO to Methanol CO+2H2 CH3OH 50
CO2 to Methanol CO2+3H2 CH3OH+H2O 50 Methanol Reactor
DME formation 2CO+4H2 CH3OCH3+H2O 5

681
SIMULTECH2014-4thInternationalConferenceonSimulationandModelingMethodologies,Technologiesand
Applications

syngas compositions and conditions coming from Table 4: Reformer steam conditions.
the gasification process respectively (Patil et al.,
Flow rate (kgmole/hr) 5770
2011). It is assumed to use Peng-Robinson Fluid
package which is commonly used with P (bar) 15
petrochemical compounds, but it is not T (°C) 198.5
recommended by HYSYS when using dimethyl-
ether. So the SRK-Twu Fluid package is adopted in Economic analysis has been performed for this
the model instead. case with the aid of CAPCOST tool. The methanol
obtained is estimated to be around 156 thousand
Table 2: Syngas composition (Mole percent). metric tons per year. The process equipment capital
costs are estimated to be 498 million dollars with
Component Mole %
total utilities costs of 17 million dollars per year. On
CO 22.2 the other hand, revenue of 537 million dollars is
Hydrogen 10.9
obtained per year. Table 5 shows a summary of the
Methane 4.5
costs including capital and energy costs. It is
CO2 11.5
Nitrogen 50.9
obvious that the operating costs of the process are
much lower than its raw material costs. This can
Table 3: Syngas conditions.
show an indication of the profitability of the process.
Table 6 shows a summary of the annual revenue
T (°C) 866 obtained from each product production.
P (atm) 1
Table 5: Summary of costs.
Mass Flow rate (kg/hr) 133,333
Total Cost of Equipment (MM$) 498
Annual Utilities Cost (MM$/Yr) 17
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Cost of Raw Material (MM$) 41.5
Cost of Land (M$) 875
Figure 3 shows the process flow diagram designed
in this study for methanol production from synthesis The annual revenue achieved from the methanol
gas generated from the biomass gasification process. which is the main product is estimated to be 81
The figure shows the most important stages made on million dollars. This value covers both the annual
the gasifier syngas so as to reach the desired operating and raw material costs. Also, the high
biomethanol product, such as the methane reforming quantity of nitrogen can be useful if it is sold to
reactor, the water gas shift reactor and the methanol nearby plant that can use it in liquefaction purposes
synthesis reactor. The process is rigorously as an example. Integration between hydrogen and
simulated starting from the syngas adjustment stage nitrogen products to produce ammonia (NH3) can be
and reaching to the final product purification stage. useful as ammonia serves as an essential precursor
This simulation model provides a robust basis for to food and fertilizers industries. Finally Figure 4
further studies of process integration, environmental shows the cash flow diagram for this case
assessment, and optimization studies leading to illustrating the tremendous increase in the project
innovative solutions to the energy scarcity problems. value after around 4 years from the project life
Moreover, it can be applied on any type of biomass implementation.
reaching to liquid methanol production as a
sustainable model of a biorefinery. Table 4 shows Table 6: Summary of revenues.
the methane reformer steam conditions used in the Annual
Material Price Flowrate
process necessary to convert the methane to syngas Revenue
Name ($/kg) (kg/h)
with required R-value. The flow rate is adjusted so (MM$)
as there is no need to enter steam in the WGSR. Methanol 0.52 21593 81
Also, the pressure and temperature conditions are set Nitrogen 0.85 69972 428
favoring the methane reforming reaction. Hydrogen 3.50 670 17
Carbon
0.02 50980 7.5
Dioxide
Dimethyl
0.68 655 3.5
Ether

682
 SimulationofBiomethanolProductionfromGreenSyngasThroughSustainableProcessDesign

Figure 3: Biomethanol production process flow diagram.

6,0 REFERENCES
Project Value (millions of dollars)

5,0
Abu Bakar, S. H., Abdul Hamid, M.K., Wan Alwi, S. R.,
4,0 Abdul Manan, Z., 2013. Flexible and Operable Heat
3,0 Exchanger Networks. CEt 32, 1297-1302.
Bakker, R., 2011. Sustainability of straw use for energy
2,0 production. Food & Biobased Research, Wageningen
1,0 UR.
Basu, P., 2010. Biomass Gasification and Pyrolysis:
0,0 Practical Design and Theory. Elsevier Inc., Oxford.
-1,0 Bula, A., Mendoza, J., Gomez, R., Sanjuan, M., 2012.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213141516171819202122232425 Syngas for Methanol Production from Palm Oil
Biomass Residues. IJoT 15, 169-175.
Project Life (Years) Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics,
2012. Rice production in Egypt. http://
Figure 4: Cash flow diagram (Acquired from CAPCOST). www.capmas.gov.eg/.
Damartzis, T., Zabaniotou, A., 2011. Thermochemical
conversion of biomass to second generation biofuels
through integrated process design-A review. Renew.
5 CONCLUSIONS Sustain. Energy Rev. 15, 366–378.
HYSYS® 2004.2 User Guide. Aspen Technology Inc.,
In the present study, a design methodology was Cambridge MA, USA.
developed for producing biomethanol out of the Jegatheesan, V., Liow, J.L., Shu, L., Kim, S.H.,
green syngas coming from the biomass gasification Visvanathan, C., 2009. The need for global
route. The design methodology is rigorous coordination in sustainable development. J. Clean.
Prod 17 (7), 637-643.
simulation-based and can be applied to any source of
Katofsky, R. E., 1993. The production of fluid fuels from
biomass for methanol production. The design biomass. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
methodology was applied to design a plant that 08544.
produces methanol from rice straw in Egypt as a Kumabe, K., Fujimoto, S., Yanagida, T. Ogata, M.,
case study. In addition, the economic analysis for the Fukuda, T., Yabe, A., Minowa, T., 2008.
case study was investigated. The simulation model Environmental and economic analysis of methanol
achieved is robust; Hence, as a recommendation production process via biomass gasification. Fuel 87,
further investigation studies, such as optimization, 1422-1427.
process integration, dynamic control, sensitivity Membrane Technology and Research, 2010a. CO2
removal from syngas. http://www.mtrinc.com/
analysis, scaling, etc. have to be performed.

683
 SIMULTECH2014-4thInternationalConferenceonSimulationandModelingMethodologies,Technologiesand
Applications

pdf_print/refinery_and_syngas/MTR_Brochure_CO2_
Removal_Syngas.pdf.
Membrane Technology and Research, 2010b. Hydrogen
purification in refineries. http://www.mtrinc.com/
hydrogen_purification_in_refineries.html.
Mertzis, D., Mitsakis, P., Tsiakmakis, S., Manara, P.,
Zabaniotou, A., Samaras, Z., 2014. Performance
analysis of a small-scale combined heat and power
system using agricultural biomass residues: The
SMARt-CHP demonstration project. Energy 64, 367-
374.
Minteer, S., 2006. Alcoholic Fuels. CRC Press, Taylor &
Francis Group, LLC.
Ohlstrom, M., Makinen, T., Laurikko, J., Pipatti, R., 2001.
New concepts for biofuels in transprtation. Biomass-
based methanol production and reduced emissions in
advanced vehicles. Technical Research centre of
Finland, VTT Tiedotteita, Meddelanden, Research
Notes 2074, ISBN 951-38-5780-8.
Olgun, H., Ozdogan, S., Yinesor, G., 2011. Results with a
bench scale downdraft biomass gasifier for
agricultural and forestry residues. Biomass and
Bioenergy 35, 572-580.
Patil, K., Bhoi, P., Huhnke, R., Bellmer, D., 2011.
Biomass downdraft gasifier with internal cyclonic
combustion chamber: Design, construction, and
experimental results. Bioresour. Technol. 102, 6286–
6290.
Shabangu, S., Woolf, D., Fisher, E.M., Angenent, L.T.,
Lehmann, J., 2014. Techno-economic assessment of
biomass slow pyrolysis into different biochar and
methanol concepts. Fuel 117, 742-748.
Simone, M., Nicolella, C., Tognotti, L., 2013. Numerical
and experimental investigation of downdraft
gasification of woody residues. Bioresour. Technol.
133, 92-101.
Turton, R., Bailie, R. C., Whiting, W. B., Shaeiwitz, J. A.,
2009. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical
Processes, Third ed. Pearson Education Inc., Boston.
Vaswani, S., 2000. Development of models for calculating
the life cycle inventory of methanol by liquid phase
and conventional production processes. North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
Xie, Q., Borges, F.C., Cheng, Y., Wan, Y., Li, Y., Lin, X.,
Liu, Y., Hussain, F., Chen, P., Ruan, R., 2014. Fast
microwave-assisted catalytic gasification of biomass
for syngas production and tar removal. Bioresour.
Technol. 156, 291-296.
Yang, R., Fu, Y., Zhang, Y., Tsubaki, N., 2004. In situ
DRIFT study of low temperature methanol synthesis
mechanism on Cu/ZnO catalysts from CO2-containing
syngas using ethanol promoter. J Catal 228, 23–35.

684

View publication stats