(393c) Coupling Process Intensification and Process Flowsheeting for Addressing Mass Transfer Effects on Technoeconomic and Life Cycle Assesstment. the Case of HMF Production.
AIChE Annual Meeting
2023
2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
Computing and Systems Technology Division
Sustainable Process Synthesis, Design, and Intensification
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 - 4:06pm to 4:24pm
In this work, we develop a new framework that addresses detailed models able to integrate the heat and mass transfer mechanisms into the design of the process and subsequently the TEA and LCA.9 The iterative modeling framework is composed of two sections: The first one includes the kinetic model and the design of the reactor following the Number of Transfer Units (NTU) method. The second part is an Aspen Plus that models the process. Both models are run following the iterative procedure presented in Figure 1. The procedure is implemented in a script that connects the kinetic model in Python with an Aspen Plus model by means of the libraries os and win32.
The framework has been used to compare micro-reactors versus conventional reactors in HMF production. The results show that microreactors reduce the minimum selling price (MSP) by at least 10%. Apart from the economics, the environmental results have shown that microreactors reduce emissions by at least 5% compared to conventional-size reactors and up to 40% for bigger sizes. Sensitivity analysis points to the reactor diameter as a key one. Diameters above 1 inch reduce the heat transfer significantly, requiring higher residence times and longer reactors to achieve the maximum conversion.
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