Screening and Assessing Product Portfolios in Biorefineries Combining Total Site Analysis and Process Synthesis

The selection of chemical production paths, product portfolios and technologies constitute fundamental challenges in the scope to design and develop sustainable and integrated biorefineries. In any case, the selected processing routes should match with maximum efficiency in the use of energy. Total Site Analysis (TSA) is a powerful process integration tool able to manage energy interactions among processes and preview options for better integration. In the same time, since chemical production paths constitute significant degrees of freedom for the development of biorefineries, it is proposed that Total Site Analysis should be combined with a synthesis approach to screen and preview options of product portfolios and chemical paths that offer high integration potentials for the overall biorefinery. The proposed methodology has been applied in a real-life lignocellulosic biorefinery to assess multiple candidate chemical production paths and select the best product portfolios offering high energy savings up to 83 % and 84 % of hot and cold utilities, respectively, for the overall plant. Further studies related to impacts of regional seasonality and variability of lignocellulosic feedstocks on energy savings and business cases of potential multi-feedstock biorefineries in India and Hungary are also presented in this paper.