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It was an impressive visit with a spontaneous crash course in chemical engineering for a new member of the consortium. One thing remains clear: the development of this technology will have a promising impact on the future of green biodiesel production. 

During the second day CONVERGE consortium gathered in a hybrid meeting to present the progress within each work package, as well as plan for further dissemination activities, such as press release and stakeholder workshops. Stay tuned for more updates and in the meantime, CONVERGE consortium wishes you a happy holiday season!

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To learn more about biodiesel production, we invite you to read the new article produced by CONVERGE partner – Bolyai University, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. The research presents modelling and simulation of biodiesel production, through an acid transesterification process, using both classic and intensified methods, coupled with an environmental impact analysis performed following the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The traditional biodiesel production consists in the synthesis and separation sections, while the intensified method is based on reactive distillation. ChemCAD software was used to simulate and evaluate the processes from a technical point of view. Methanol is generated using CO2 and H2, this method being considered as a new approach for CO2 utilization. Water electrolysis is employed for H2 generation, with either biomass or natural gas as power source. A cradle-to-gate environmental analysis is performed within the current research by means of GaBi software, considering the following system boundaries:

i) upstream processes: catalyst supply chain, sunflower oil supply chain, natural gas supply chain, limestone extraction and decomposition,

ii) main-processes: methanol and biodiesel production,

iii) downstream processes: disposal of wastes. ReCiPe method was chosen as the impact assessment method. High purities for the main product and by-product are obtained (i.e., purities higher than 99%).

The outcome of the process simulation points to the conclusion that the intensified path gives better performances from technical point of view. At the same time the environmental results show that the classic approach performs better when CO2 and H2 are used as raw materials, while reactive distillation displays a higher efficiency when natural gas is used as feedstock.

Read the full article here

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We are honored to share a new article that is focused on the optimization of the supply chain for the production of biodiesel using forest residues as feedstock for methanol production.

The optimization tool based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) was adapted and applied to the Swedish case. This work illustrated the complexity of the supply chain for the production of the  biofuels where all the steps can significantly affect the cost and efficiency of the conversion process. Particular attention is devoted to the characterization from economic and environmental point of view of the transport by truck and trains, the impact of the drying process as well as the size of the biorefinery plant.

Results show that the forestry residues collection is limited by the size of the biodiesel plants. The calculated cost of the fuel is around 525 V/t being the biorefinery the major cost. The equivalent CO2 emissions are around 10.4 gCO2/MJMeOH thanks to the low carbon intensity of the Swedish electricity. A sensitivity analysis showed that the supply chain does not vary significantly assuming higher prices of biomethanol. 

This work helps us to understand the complexity of the supply chain for the production of the biofuels where all the steps can significantly affect the conversion process cost and efficiency.

Follow the link to read the full article

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TNO was very happy to welcome more than 100 on site and online participants!

There was the opportunity to learn about the latest developments of various European projects by the experts from TNO, VTT, BTG Biomass Technology Group BV, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH), TU Darmstadt, Politecnico di Milano, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and hear the EU perspective by the biofuels policy officer and senior expert of European Commission, Maria Georgiadou. TNO offered visits of the new #biofuels research facilities and there was some very interesting round table discussions on the barriers to advanced biofuels & renewable fuels commercialization.

Thank you all for the participation!

It is possible to download the presentations here.

Stay tuned!

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The CONVERGE consortium is glad to invite you to the workshop “Innovations in Advanced Biofuels Production“ at TNO in Petten (NL) on 18th May.

Please register here.

Stan tuned!

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On April 6 a consortium colleague, Mads Nordby, will be presenting at the ISEC 2022 conference.

The presentation is about Task 6.5 and the title is “Integration of Innovative Technologies to Different Energy Intensive Industries”.

Read more about the conference here.

Stay tuned!

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We are glad to announce that our work on the enhanced membrane reactor will be presented at the Euromembrane Conference 2021 on 30^th November.

Stay tuned!

Figure 1: Multi-tubular membrane system constructed at TNO

The post CONVERGE @ Euromembrane Conference appeared first on Converge H2020 Project.

The article presents a MILP formulation of the economical optimization of ABSC design, comprising the definition of the associated weekly management plan. A general modeling approach is proposed with a network structure comprising two intermediate echelons (storage and conversion facilities) and accounts for train and truck freight transport. The model is declined for the case of a multi-feedstock ABSC for green methanol production tested on the Italian case study. 

Residual biomass feedstocks considered are woodchips from primary forestry residues, grape pomace, and exhausted olive pomace. The calculated cost of methanol is equal to 418.7 €/t with conversion facility cost accounting for 50% of the fuel cost share while transportation and storage costs for around 15%. When considering only woodchips the price of methanol increases to 433.4 €/t outlining the advantages of multi-feedstock approach.

Download as PDF

Read full article

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Multi-tubular membrane reactor system for the methanol production with a total 0.25 m² was successfully designed, constructed, and integrated in the test-rig.

The membrane reactor system consists of the packed bed reactor, followed by the cooler and multi-tubular membrane reactor.  The constructed multi-tubular membrane reactor will be used to confirm the overall and the long-term performance with the target syngas conversion of a minimum 33% per pass.

The multi-tubular membrane reactor consists of 7 polymeric membrane tubes in which an isothermal conditions are kept by circulating of the cooling oil. Each membrane has an effective length of 80 cm.

This and other information about the CONVERGE Project are also available on Linkedin!

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