Integrated Biofuel Production System

• US 20090239279A1
• Filed: 11/10/2008
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas A&M University System
• Original Assignee: Texas A&M University System
• Inventors: Hall, Kenneth R., Capareda, Sergio C., Holtzapple, Mark T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,153,850 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 435/167
• CPC Class Codes: C10G 2/32 with the use of catalysts
• CPC Class Codes: C10G 2300/1003 Waste materials
• CPC Class Codes: C10G 2300/1014 of vegetal origin
• CPC Class Codes: C10G 2400/30 Aromatics
• CPC Class Codes: C10J 2300/1659 to liquid hydrocarbons
• CPC Class Codes: C10J 2300/1665 to alcohols, e.g. methanol or ethanol
• CPC Class Codes: C10J 2300/1681 with biological plants, e.g. involving bacteria, algae, fungi
• CPC Class Codes: C10J 2300/1861 Heat exchange between at least two process streams
• CPC Class Codes: C10J 3/00 Production of combustible gases containing carbon monoxide from solid carbonaceous fuels destructive distillation processes C10B
• CPC Class Codes: C10L 1/02 essentially based on components consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen only
• CPC Class Codes: C10L 3/08 Production of synthetic natural gas
• CPC Class Codes: C12P 5/02 acyclic C12P5/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: C12P 7/00 Preparation of oxygen-containing organic compounds
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 50/30 Fuel from waste, e.g. synthetic alcohol or diesel
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 30/20 using bio-feedstock

Abstract

According to an embodiment, a biomass conversion subsystem produces methane and/or alcohol and residual biomass. A pyrolysis or a gasification subsystem is used to produce thermal energy and/or process gasses. The thermal energy may be stored thermal energy in the form of a pyrolysis oil. A fuel conversion subsystem produces liquid hydrocarbon fuels from the methane and/or alcohol using thermal energy and/or process gasses produced by the gasification or pyrolysis subsystem. Because the biomass production system integrates the residual products from biomass conversion and the residual thermal energy from pyrolysis or gasification, the overall efficiency of the integrated biomass production system is greatly enhanced.

Claims

1. A biofuel production process comprising:

a) converting biomass to alcohol, methane, or mixtures thereof and residual biomass;

b) pyrolyzing the residual biomass to produce hydrocarbon gasses and or pyrolysis oil;

c) synthesizing a liquid hydrocarbon fuel from the alcohol, methane or mixture thereof using some of the hydrocarbon gasses or pyrolysis oil produced by pyrolyzing the residual biomass.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein step a) comprises:

1) fermenting biomass to produce carboxylic acids or carboxylic acid salts;

2) thermally converting the carboxylic acids or carboxylic acid salts to ketones at less than atmospheric pressure; and

3) hydrogenating the ketones to produce secondary alcohols.

3. The process of claim 2, wherein pyrolysis oil is combusted to produce heat to drive step a) 2).

4. The process of claim 2, further comprising pyrolyzing additional biomass to produce additional pyrolysis oil, and combusting the additional pyrolysis oil to drive step a) 2).

5. The process of claim 2, further comprising:

f) converting a second biomass to methane and a second residual biomass or converting landfill gas to methane;

g) reforming the methane to produce hydrogen;

h) using the hydrogen to drive step a)

     3).

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the biomass is converted to alcohol with enzymes.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein the biomass is converted to alcohol by microorganisms.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the biomass is converted to methane by methanogenic bacteria.

9. The process of claim 1, wherein the biomass is selected from the group consisting of grasses, trees, canes, animal waste, food waste, algae, municipal solid waste, and harvest residuals.

10. The process of claim 1, wherein step c) comprises the steps of:

1) thermally converting the methane to acetylene and residual gasses;

2) separating the acetylene from the residual gases;

3) hydrogenating the acetylene to form ethylene;

4) oligomerizing the ethylene to form a hydrocarbon fuel.

11. The process of claim 10, further comprising pyrolyzing a second biomass to produce additional pyrolysis oil, and combusting the additional pyrolysis oil to produce heat to drive step c) 1).

12. The process of claim 10, further comprising recovering supplemental methane from landfill gas, and adding the supplemental methane to the methane for thermal conversion to acetylene and residual gases in step c) 1).

13. The process of claim 10, wherein pyrolysis oil is combusted to produce heat to drive step c) 1).

14. The process of claim 10, wherein the hydrocarbon gases are also converted to acetylene and residual gases in step c) 1).

15. The biofuel production process of claim 10, further comprising:

f) converting a second biomass to supplemental methane and a second residual biomass or converting landfill gas to supplemental methane;

g) steam reforming the supplemental methane to produce hydrogen;

h) using the hydrogen to drive step c)

     3).

16. The process of claim 1, wherein step c) comprises oligomerizing the alcohol to form a liquid hydrocarbon fuel.

17. The process of claim 16, wherein oligomerizing the alcohol additionally forms light hydrocarbon residuals and the light hydrocarbon residuals are converted to additional alcohol.

18. A biofuel production process comprising:

a) converting biomass to alcohol, methane, or mixtures thereof and residual biomass;

b) gasifying the residual biomass to produce carbon monoxide, hydrogen, or mixtures thereof, thereby producing thermal energy;

c) synthesizing a liquid hydrocarbon fuel from the alcohol, methane or mixture thereof using some of the thermal energy produced by gasifying the residual biomass.

19. The process of claim 18, wherein step a) uses some of the thermal energy produced by gasifying the residual biomass.

20. The process of claim 18, wherein step a) comprises:

1) fermenting biomass to produce carboxylic acids or carboxylic acid salts;

2) thermally converting the carboxylic acids or carboxylic acid salts to ketones at less than atmospheric pressure; and

3) hydrogenating the ketones to produce secondary alcohols.

21. The process of claim 20, further comprising pyrolyzing a second biomass to produce pyrolysis oil, and combusting the pyrolysis oil to drive step a) 2).

22. The process of claim 20, further comprising:

f) converting a second biomass to methane and a second residual biomass or converting landfill gas to methane;

g) reforming the methane to produce hydrogen;

h) using the hydrogen to drive step a)

     3).

23. The process of claim 18, wherein the biomass is converted to alcohol with enzymes.

24. The process of claim 18, wherein the biomass is converted to alcohol by microorganisms.

25. The process of claim 18, wherein the biomass is converted to methane by methanogenic bacteria.

26. The process of claim 18, wherein the biomass is selected from the group consisting of grasses, trees, canes, animal waste, food waste, algae, municipal solid waste, and harvest residuals.

27. The process of claim 18, wherein step c) comprises the steps of:

1) thermally converting the methane to acetylene and residual gases;

2) separating the acetylene from the residual gases;

3) hydrogenating the acetylene to form ethylene;

4) oligomerizing the ethylene to form a hydrocarbon fuel.

28. The biofuel production process of claim 27, further comprising:

f) converting a second biomass to supplemental methane and a second residual biomass or converting landfill gas to supplemental methane;

g) steam reforming the supplemental methane to produce hydrogen;

h) using the hydrogen to drive step c)

     3).

29. The process of claim 27, further comprising recovering supplemental methane from landfill gas, and adding the supplemental methane to the methane for thermal conversion to acetylene and residual gases in step c) 1).

30. The process of claim 27, further comprising pyrolyzing a second biomass to produce pyrolysis oil, and combusting the pyrolysis oil to produce heat to drive step c) 1).

31. The process of claim 18, wherein step c) comprises oligomerizing the alcohol to form a liquid hydrocarbon fuel.

32. The process of claim 31, wherein oligomerizing the alcohol additionally forms light hydrocarbon residuals and the light hydrocarbon residuals are converted to additional alcohol.

33. The process of claim 18, wherein step c) comprises synthesizing a liquid hydrocarbon fuel from the carbon monoxide and the hydrogen using a Fisher-Tropsch reactor.

34. The process of claim 18, further comprising pyrolyzing the residual biomass to produce hydrocarbon gasses or pyrolysis oil.

35. A chemical production process comprising:

a) converting biomass to alcohol, methane, or mixtures thereof and residual biomass;

b) gasifying or pyrolyzing the residual biomass to produce hydrocarbon gasses, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, or mixtures thereof;

c) synthesizing a chemical from the alcohol, methane or mixtures thereof and the hydrocarbon gasses, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, or mixtures thereof.

36. The process of claim 35, wherein the chemical is selected from the group consisting of paraffins, olefins, aromatics, and naphthas.

37. The process of claim 36, wherein the chemical is selected from the group consisting of ethylene, acetylene, benzene, cyclohexene, xylene, toluene, ethylbenzene.

38. A biofuel production process comprising:

a) pyrolyzing biomass to produce hydrocarbon gasses or pyrolysis oil;

b) synthesizing a liquid hydrocarbon fuel from the hydrocarbon gasses or pyrolysis oil.

39. The process of claim 38, wherein prior to step a) the biomass is dried and micronized.

40. The process of claim 38, wherein step b) comprises the steps of:

1) thermally converting the hydrocarbon gasses or pyrolysis oil to acetylene and residual gases;

2) separating the acetylene from the residual gases;

3) hydrogenating the acetylene to form ethylene;

4) oligomerizing the ethylene to form a hydrocarbon fuel.

41. The process of claim 40, further comprising recovering methane from landfill gas, and adding the methane to the hydrocarbon gasses or pyrolysis oil for thermal conversion to acetylene and residual gases in step b) 1).

42. The process of claim 40, wherein pyrolysis oil is combusted to produce heat to drive step b) 1).

43. The biofuel production process of claim 40, further comprising:

f) converting a second biomass to methane and a residual biomass or recovering methane from landfill gas;

g) steam reforming the methane to produce hydrogen;

h) using the hydrogen to drive step b)

     3).

44. The process of claim 38, wherein the biomass is selected from the group consisting of grasses, trees, canes, animal waste, food waste, algae, municipal solid waste, and harvest residuals.

45. A biofuel production process comprising:

a) converting biomass to carboxylic acid salts and residual biomass;

b) converting the carboxylic acid salts to secondary alcohols;

c) gasifying the residual biomass to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen, wherein the hydrogen is used to convert the carboxylic acid salts to secondary alcohols.

d) synthesizing a liquid hydrocarbon fuel from the secondary alcohols.

46. The biofuel production process of claim 45, wherein step d) comprises oligomerizing the alcohol to form a hydrocarbon fuel.