Techno-economic Assessment of Syngas Production from Sugarcane Vinasse Compared to the Natural Gas Route: A Biorefinery Concept

Sugarcane biofuel processing plays an important role in the Brazilian economy, being Brazil the world's largest sugarcane ethanol producer. Nevertheless, the success of its distilleries depends on how they overcome the new scientific challenges faced, mainly regarding the disposal or reuse of sugarcane vinasse. In this sense, the present work uses Aspen Hysys(R) to simulate an innovative synthesis gas production process integrated into an ethanol distillery. Initially, the distillery is simulated and validated using industrial real data from a plant located in Brazil in order to analyze the potential of sugarcane vinasse generation. Thereafter, conventional (from natural gas) and renewable (from vinasse-based biomass) routes for syngas production through steam methane reforming are compared considering both, technical feasibility and economic investment. Such comparison presents a more rigorous simulation of the vinasse-based plant and shows that the proposed scenario might be 27.87% less expensive than the plant from natural gas. The production plant of syngas from vinasse-based biogas is evaluated to further improve the thermal efficiency and financial performance of the process designed. The results demonstrate that syngas production coupled to ethanol plants is a promising market to countries ascending in technology development for biomass utilization, such as Brazil.