Exergoeconomic and Environmental Analysis of a Palm Oil Biorefinery for the Production of Bio-Jet Fuel

The production of biofuel from biomass is a viable option, due to the availability of biomass and its renewable character. This work aims to explore the production of bio-jet fuel via different routes in the context of a biorefinery in which the production of the bio-jet fuel is integrated with a palm oil mill and a transesterification plant for the production of biodiesel. In addition to handling the extraction and transesterification phases, the system has also a second-generation ethanol plant and facilities for the production of bio-jet fuel via HEFA and ATJ. The biorefinery has a cogeneration plant that is responsible for supplying all the processes with thermal and electric energy. The system is evaluated using the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and is shown to have efficiencies of 37% and 55%, respectively. An exergoeconomic and economic analysis is also carried out in this study. The thermodynamic analysis highlights the immature character of the bio-jet fuel production chain, due to the irreversibilities, in the HEFA scenario, 47 MW, and in the for the combination of 2G-ethanol and ATJ plants, 82 MW. In the ATJ process, the highest thermoeconomic costs were found for the biofuels. However, although the surplus of electricity produced had a higher cost than for any other product, at 65.53 US$/MWh, this was within the margins of market competitiveness in Brazil. The economic analysis showed that the project was not attractive due to the high initial investment required. From an environmental standpoint, the production of bio-jet fuel is an alternative that can mitigate the effects of global warming compared to fossil jet fuel, with reductions in emissions of 84.7% and 72.8% for HEFA and ATJ bio-jet fuels, respectively. In summary, it is shown that although diversification of the biorefinery's products can contribute to the finances of the plant, the production chains are not fully prepared, and the processes of bio-jet acquisition has low production yields and a high level of irreversibility. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

The production of biofuel from biomass is a viable option due to availability and renewability. However, the production chains are not fully prepared, with low production yields and high levels of irreversibility.