Green process integration: innovative pathway of biomass to Methanol/DME synthesis

The objective of the current Ph.D. dissertation was design and development of an innovative green and sustainable pathway of methanol/DME synthesis. The fulfilled steps are described and summarized as following: Chapter I: Introduction on energy, the status of energy and the renewable energies on the world, and “know-how” in sustainable and green integration of process engineering and the specified chemical process, i.e., Methanol/DME synthesis process. Chapter II: Design, simulation, and control of CSP plant in different technologies varying in TES technologies:  Direct molten salt two-tank thermal storage concentrated solar power plant ;  Thermocline molten salt thermal storage concentrated solar power plant The main aim of this part was generalizing the CSP plant to generate steam towards the commercialized chemical processes, as it would be explained in the next part. In addition, providing the stable and constant steam power for in-demand market through the 24 hours of the day and night , in spite of the complexity of overcoming to the intermittent nature of solar radiation as a source of energy, which is available only through a day in the optimum weather conditions. TES as an important key role in CSP plant guarantees the possibility of applying this potential into gasification processes. In addition, the plantwide controlling scenarios are applied to preserve and store the energy in the maximum possible temperature of storage. It means both stability and efficiency are provided to generate the steam. Chapter III: Demonstrating the feasibility of low-temperature steam biomass gasification along with adjusting the efficiency of process (H2:CO ratio as a benchmark) through a detailed kinetic scheme including multiple phase(gas-solid) and multi-scale modeling with consideration of the transient phenomena (heat and mass) and analysis of the influence of the effective parameters :  pre-treatment of the feedstock including drying (of the content of humidity), pulverizing (of size of particles), and the type of feedstock (the component of biomass) ;  operating condition including : equivalent ratio, residence time and steam: biomass ratio;  re-designing the gasifier to adapt it with the low-temperature steam biomass gasification The remarkable purpose of this section was producing the syngas via a detailed gasifier unit along with preserved efficiency of the plant considering the prospects of the further step, i.e., methanol/DME production. Chapter IV: Applying the produced syngas via the pre-designed renewable process targeted to methanol/DME along with:  adjusting the desired ratio of H2: CO and elevating it by steam reforming of the fraction of methane obtained in the gasification along with water gas shift reacto, before entering the one-step methanol/DME reactor;  modeling and simulation of the methanol/DME synthesis reactor The significant aim of this part was applying the comprehensive model of methanol/DME reactor and achieving the chemical production by the pre-proposed green and sustainable pathway. Chapter V: Conclusion and integrating all above-mentioned processes in a unit process, starting from concentrating solar power plant to synthesis of methanol/DME by:  integrating of three all designated, simulated and modeled units and processes to minimize the energy consumption through a sustainable green route;  providing the possibility of linking different modeling and simulation packages, from dynamic to steady state, user added model and applying the plantwide control scenarios, in order to guarantee the proposed innovation.  Future outlooks regarding this activity. In this chapter the overall conclusion of the studied plant and future prospects is discussed.