TY  - JOUR
T1  - Technical and Environmental Evaluation of an Integrated Biorefinery from Residual
Biomass of Oil Palm Fruit to obtain Biobutanol and Biohydrogen
AU - Espinosa, Carlos AU - Arrieta, Brigette AU - Gonzalez-Delgado, Angel Dario AU - Ojeda, Karina AU - Sanchez, Eduardo 
JO  - Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
VL  - 13
IS  - 2
SP  - 533
EP  - 540
PY  - 2018
DA  - 2001/08/19
SN  - 1816-949x
DO  - jeasci.2018.533.540
UR  - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=jeasci.2018.533.540
KW  - Biorefinery
KW  -palm pressed fiber
KW  -oil palm empty fruit bunches
KW  -heat integration
KW  -WAR algorithm
KW  -biorefinery
AB  - African palm fruit (<i>Elaeis guineensis</i>) has become one of the most widely studied and implemented
raw material for vegetable oil production which is mainly used as food source and as a feedstock for biodiesel,
production, however, unidirectional behavior of production chain causes waste accumulation and economic
losses. In this research is presented an integrated biorefinery scheme based on oil palm fruit as raw material for
the biobutanol and biohydrogen production, through simulation of each stage of the process using the
commercial software UNISIM design. Technical analysis and environmental assessment using WAR algorithm
were performed for five scenarios with different combinations of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (OPEFB) and
Palm Pressed Fiber (PPF) in order to ensure the feasibility of its implementation at industrial scale as an
alternative to expand the production chain. The best scenario resulting from this study was the mixture of
OPEFB and PPF in a ratio 50:50 with a production rate of 6.900 kg/h of biobutanol, 680 kg/h of biohydrogen and
3.000 kg/h of other high value products. An environmental sustainability index (PEI) of 3.06/kg of product for
the best scenario was obtained. Finally by energy integration, the potential for heating and cooling services
saving was 9.5 and 92.2%, respectively. Environmental impact was reduced after the energy integration which
shows that the integral use of the palm fruit through conversion processes in an integrated biorefinery is a
technical and environmentally viable alternative to obtain biobutanol and biohydrogen as main products.
ER  -