BCT-32306 Advanced Biorefinery

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

Process Engineering Basics, Biorefinery.

Contents:

Biorefinery concerns the technology for sustainable processing of biomass from plants, organisms and biomass available in waste streams into a spectrum of marketable products and energy. Biorefinery is a key to the biobased economy and it is expected that the state of art methods for biorefinery will significantly progress in the next decades. To progress current technology, methods for biorefinery design must be developed. This course concerns approaches how to design biorefineries and to how to develop new concepts.
Efficiency of biorefinery increases by the production of a spectrum of products from the available biomass. Therefore, the course considers design methods of biorefinery processing systems for the usage of all components from biomass. The performance of the used technology is also affected by constraints which result from operational and investment costs and the scale of operation. Criteria to evaluate the biorefinery system with respect to these criteria are discussed and used to reconsider a biorefinery system.
Specific subjects in the course are:
- overview of the motives for biorefinery;
- overview of feedstock properties;
- functional analysis for separation of resources and generation of solutions;
- development of mass and energy balances;
- design of biorefinery process units and full system for a range of products;
- recovery of resources in the biorefinery system;
- the evaluation of the system with respect to sustainability and economic criteria;
- criteria for successful implementation (supply chain, operational and investment costs);
- the design cycle.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be independently able to:
- give the motives for biorefinery of resources;
- perform a functional analysis of potential methods that can be used for biorefinery of a resource;
- describe a biorefinery system that uses all components in biomass;
- design biorefinery process units and a chain of units as a biorefinery syste;
- evaluate the performance of a biorefinery system for different products by calculations, including recovery of resources;
- evaluate sustainability and economic criteria for the system;
- define and evaluate constraints for biorefinery which result from operational and investment costs;
- reconsider the system as a part of a design cycle.

Activities:

The course consists of 11 lectures, 6 tutorials that require active participation ( each 4 hours), 6 PGO for a design (each 4 hours), and self-study.

Examination:

- written examination;
- report and presentation on a design problem.
The final mark is based on a 50/50% weight of the examination and report.

Literature:

Not yet defined.