Simulation and feasibility evaluation of a tipical levulinic Acid (la) plant using biomass as substrate

Abstract

Several problems has been worried the world population when it comes to sustainability subject. The imminent depletion of fossil fuels and the lack of alternatives to replace compounds produced by oil also add to this account . Countries that have their economy based on agribusiness (like Brazil) have a slight advantage in this scenario since naturally much of biomass is lost in the environment until the final product exportation takes place. It means that such biomass can be used in the production of several alternative fuels and other basic chemicals such as second-generation bioethanol and levulinic acid, diminishing the reliance on oil. This last one is a promising building block molecule an organic compound, intermediate in the synthesis of various chemical compounds for additives of fluids, fragrances, oils, plastics among others. Thus, in the present work, a complete simulation of levulinic acid production process from the acid hydrolysis of biomass (it was used sugarcane bagasses as an example) was conducted to produce 8 kilotons of levulinic acid per year (with high concentration of the final product (99,6 wt %)). Specifically, a generic large scale levulinic acid plant was performed using ASPEN PLUS® V.7.3. The main goal was to evaluate feasibility of the overall process using a typical production value based on actual plants (more specifically the Caserta plant, located in Italy). Despite of similarity of another works presented in open literature, a detailed discussion from the data obtained was carried out. Furthermore, a formic acid separation from water was fulfilled using activated charcoal adsorption become the whole process more sustainable in the near future.