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Hydrothermal Pretreatment: Process Modeling and Economic Assessment Within the Framework of Biorefinery Processes

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Hydrothermal Processing in Biorefineries

Abstract

Techno-economic evaluation of processes based on hydrothermal pretreatment is needed to set the current status and to identify processing bottlenecks that need to be addressed to make these processes viable. Having suitable models to carry simulations is a prerequisite for conducting such evaluations. The goal of this chapter is to discuss different approaches that can be used to model and simulate hydrothermal pretreatment processes using commercial process simulators. A discussion on possible flowsheets, as well as different ways to model biomass and chemical reactions, is presented. Rather than simply listing the different possibilities, the focus is on the rationale behind the selection of unit operations and models and the consequences each selection has. A brief discussion on possible improvements to be made to the current state-of-the-art models is also presented. Toward the end, the chapter provides a review of different criteria and usual assumptions that are made to calculate costs of biorefinery processes, and a summary of these costs for those flowsheets has analyzed inclusion of hydrothermal pretreatment.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the cooperative agreement between the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (Masdar Institute), Abu Dhabi, UAE, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA—Reference 02/MI/MI/CP/11/07633/GEN/G/00 for work under the second five-year agreement.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ingeniería, Instituto de Ingeniería Química, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, 11200, Uruguay

    Ana I. Torres

  2. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, 54224, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Muhammad T. Ashraf, Tanmay Chaturvedi & Jens Ejbye Schmidt

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    George Stephanopoulos

Authors
  1. Ana I. Torres
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  2. Muhammad T. Ashraf
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  3. Tanmay Chaturvedi
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  4. Jens Ejbye Schmidt
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  5. George Stephanopoulos
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ana I. Torres or George Stephanopoulos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry, Food Research Department, Biorefinery Group, Autonomous University of Coahuila, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

    Héctor A. Ruiz

  2. Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Esbjerg, Denmark

    Mette Hedegaard Thomsen

  3. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Heather L. Trajano

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Torres, A.I., Ashraf, M.T., Chaturvedi, T., Schmidt, J.E., Stephanopoulos, G. (2017). Hydrothermal Pretreatment: Process Modeling and Economic Assessment Within the Framework of Biorefinery Processes. In: Ruiz, H., Hedegaard Thomsen, M., Trajano, H. (eds) Hydrothermal Processing in Biorefineries. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56457-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56457-9_8

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