Browsing by Subject "MixAlco"
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Item Anaerobic fermentation of rice straw and chicken manure to carboxylic acids(Texas A&M University, 2007-04-25) Agbogbo, Frank KwesiIn this work, 80% lime-treated rice straw and 20% lime-treated chicken manure were used as substrates in rotary fermentors. Countercurrent fermentation was performed at various volatile solid loading rates (VSLR) and liquid residence times (LRT). The highest acid productivity of 1.69 g/(L????d) was at a total acid concentration of 32.4 g/L. The highest conversion and yield were 0.692 g VS digested/g VS fed and 0.29 g total acids/g VS fed, respectively. The continuum particle distribution model (CPDM) was used to predict product concentrations at various VSLR and LRT. CPDM predicted the experimental total acid concentration and conversion at an average error of 6.41% and 6.55%, respectively. A fixed-bed fermentation system was designed to perform pretreatment and fermentation in the same unit. High product concentrations (~48 g/L) as well as high conversions (0.741 g VS digested/g VS fed, F4, Train B) were obtained from the same fermentor. CPDM was extended to predict product concentrations in the fixed-bed fermentation system. The model gave a good estimate of the product concentrations and retention time. After biomass fermentation, the residue can be combusted to generate heat. For pretreatment purposes, the use of ash can replace lime. A study was performed using ash as a potential pretreatment agent. Ash from raw poplar wood was effective in pretreating poplar wood; however, ash from bagasse fermentation residues was not useful in pretreating bagasse. Previous modeling studies indicate that a conversion of 95% could be achieved with bagasse using countercurrent fermentation. Because lignin constitutes 13% of the dry weight of bagasse, this means lignin would have to be digested to obtain a conversion of 95%. Experiments on the fermentation of enzymatically liberated lignin from both poplar wood and bagasse do not show that solubilized lignin was fermented to organic acids by using a mixed culture of marine microorganisms. Two buffer systems (ammonium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate) were used to compare product concentrations of carboxylic acid fermentations using office paper and chicken manure. It has been demonstrated that the total product concentration using ammonium bicarbonate is almost double the product concentration using calcium carbonate.Item Analysis of low-cost building material for the MixAlco process(2009-05-15) Titzman, L. ClintonThe development of biofuels as an alternative fuel source highlights the MixAlco process as one method to convert organic waste into alcohol fuels. The pretreatment and fermentation of waste is integral to the process and represents a principal cost consideration due to the large structure needed to encapsulate the fermenting materials. This research developed papercrete as a potential construction material to reduce the cost of a structure. Papercrete is a mixture of paper, cement, and sand. The strengths, thermal conductivity, and other physical properties were compared with those of conventional building materials. This research identified acceptable property ranges necessary for using a structural papercrete facility and recorded compressive and tensile strengths that were too weak to build an economical structure. The identification of a hybrid papercrete-concrete structure produced results and economics within acceptable ranges. The papercrete-concrete alternative was tested on the same basis as the papercrete for structural and economic analysis, which provided acceptable results. The results indicate that a papercrete-concrete structure is a viable alternative structurally and economically within a range of sizes for the structure.Item Assessing the Potential of Natural Microbial Communities to Improve a Second-Generation Biofuels Platform(2012-10-19) Hammett, Amy Jo MacbeyNaturally occurring microbial communities from high-salt and/or high-temperature environments were collected from sites across the United States and Puerto Rico and screened for their efficacy in the MixAlco biofuel production platform. The MixAlco process, based on the carboxylate platform, is a sustainable and economically viable platform for converting lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels. Using a mixed culture of anaerobic organisms, lignocellulosic biomass is fermented into carboxylic acids, which are neutralized to their corresponding carboxylate salts. These salts can then be converted into a wide variety of chemical products and fuels (alcohols, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel). The central hypothesis is that microbial communities from relatively extreme environments, having evolved to withstand selection pressures similar to the conditions in the carboxylate platform, will exhibit high rates of biomass conversion. A total of 559 soil communities was screened as inocula in established laboratory-scale fermentations. We used pyrotag sequencing of 16S rRNA genes to characterize the bacterial components of the best-performing microbial communities. The best performing communities converted up to 3 times more biomass to acids than a standard marine community inoculum. The community analyses have allowed us to determine the extent to which the same functional types are favored during fermentation, at both laboratory and demonstration plant scales. In all cases, we observed a shift from the more diverse sediment community to post-fermentation communities with relatively low diversity dominated by organisms in the phylum Firmicutes, specifically Bacilli and Clostridia classes. Despite the fact that the inoculum sources were both geographically and ecologically diverse, all of the post-fermentation communities were more similar to each other in community structure than to the corresponding original inoculum community. In addition, studies of the sediments used as inocula revealed that environmental parameters, such as pH and water content, were significantly correlated with bacterial community composition. The wealth of data provided by current sequencing technologies allowed us to question whether communities with high process performances tend to achieve that performance with similar community structures.Item Pretreatment and Fermentation of Sugarcane Trash to Carboxylic Acids(2010-01-14) Nachiappan, BalasubramanThe rising price of oil is hurting consumers all over the world. There is growing interest in producing biofuels from non-food crops, such as sugarcane trash. Lignocellulosic biomass (e.g., sugarcane trash) is an abundant, inexpensive, and renewable resource. The patented MixAlco process is a cost-effective solution, which does not require sterility or the addition of expensive enzymes to convert lignocellulosic biomass to transportation fuels and valuable chemicals. In this study, the MixAlco process was used to convert sugarcane trash to carboxylic acids under thermophilic conditions. Lime-treated sugarcane trash (80%) and chicken manure (20%) was used as the feedstock in rotary 1-L fermentors. Ammonium bicarbonate buffer was used to mitigate the effects of product (carboxylic acid) inhibition. Marine inoculum was used because of the high adaptability of the mixed culture of microorganisms present. Iodoform solution was added to inhibit methanogenesis. Preliminary batch studies over a 20-day period produced 19.7 g/L of carboxylic acids. Sugarcane trash had the highest average yield (0.31 g total acid/g VS fed) and highest average conversion (0.70 g VS digested/g VS fed) among the three substrates compared. Countercurrent fermentations were performed at various volatile solid loading rates (VSLR) and liquid residence times (LRT). The highest acid productivity of 1.40 g/(L?d) was at a total acid concentration of 29.9 g/L. The highest conversion and yield were 0.64 g VS digested/g VS fed and 0.36 g total acid/g VS fed, respectively. The continuum particle distribution model (CPDM) was used to predict acid concentration at various VSLR and LRT. The average error in between the predicted and experimental acid concentration and conversion were 4.62% and 1.42%, respectively. The effectiveness of several pretreatment methods was evaluated using the CPDM method. The best-performing method was short-term, no-wash, oxidative lime pretreatment with ball milling. At an industrial-scale solids loading of 300 g VS/L liquid, the CPDM ?map? predicts a total acid concentration of 64.0 g/L at LRT of 30 days, VSLR of 7 g/(L?d), and conversion of 57%. Also high conversion of 76% and high acid concentration of 52 g/L are achieved at a VSLR of 4 g/(L?d) and LRT of 30 days.Item Process Synthesis and Optimization of Biorefinery Configurations(2012-10-19) Pham, VietThe objective of this research was to develop novel and applicable methodologies to solve systematically problems along a roadmap of constructing a globally optimum biorefinery design. The roadmap consists of the following problems: (1) synthesis of conceptual biorefinery pathways from given feedstocks and products, (2) screening of the synthesized pathways to identify the most economic pathways, (3) development of a flexible biorefinery configuration, and (4) techno-economic analysis of a detailed biorefinery design. In the synthesis problem, a systems-based "forward-backward" approach was developed. It involves forward synthesis of biomass to possible intermediates and reverse synthesis starting with desired products and identifying necessary species and pathways leading to them. Then, two activities are performed to generate complete biorefinery pathways: matching (if one of the species synthesized in the forward step is also generated by the reverse step) or interception (a task is determined to take a forward-generated species with a reverse-generated species by identifying a known process or by using reaction pathway synthesis to link to two species.) In the screening problem, the Bellman's Principle of Optimality was applied to decompose the optimization problem into sub-problems in which an optimal policy of available technologies was determined for every conversion step. Subsequently, either a linear programming formulation or dynamic programming algorithm was used to determine the optimal pathways. In the configuration design problem, a new class of design problems with flexibility was proposed to build the most profitable plants that operate only when economic efficiency is favored. A new formulation approach with proposed constraints called disjunctive operation mode was also developed to solve the design problems. In the techno-economic analysis for a detailed design of biorefinery, the process producing hydrocarbon fuels from lignocellulose via the carboxylate platform was studied. This analysis employed many state-of-the-art chemical engineering fundamentals and used extensive sources of published data and advanced computing resources to yield reliable conclusions to the analysis. Case studies of alcohol-producing pathways from lignocellulosic biomass were discussed to demonstrate the merits of the proposed approaches in the former three problems. The process was extended to produce hydrocarbon fuels in the last problem.Item Sugarcane juice extraction and preservation, and long-term lime pretreatment of bagasse(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Granda Cotlear, Cesar BenignoNew technologies, such as an efficient vapor-compression evaporator, a stationary lime kiln (SLK), and the MixAlco process, compelled us to re-evaluate methods for producing sugar from cane. These technologies allow more water and lime to be used, and they add more value to bagasse. Extracting and preserving the sugars, and lime pretreating the bagasse to enhance biodigestibility, all at the same time in a pile, was demonstrated to be unfeasible; therefore, sugar extraction must occur before lime treating the bagasse. Sugar extraction should occur countercurrently by lixiviation, where liquid moves in stages opposite to the soaked bagasse (megasse), which is conveyed by screw-press conveyors that gently squeeze the fiber in each stage, improving extraction. The performance of a pilot-scale screw-press conveyor was tested for dewatering capabilities and power consumption. The unoptimized equipment decreased megasse moisture from 96 to 89%. Simulation of the process suggested that eight stages are necessary to achieve 98% recovery from typical sugarcane. The cumulative power for the screw-press conveyor system was 17.0?2.1 hp?h/ton dry fiber. Thin raw juice preserved with lime for several months showed no sucrose degradation and no quality deterioration, except for reducing sugar destruction. The lime loading needed for 1-year preservation is 0.20 g Ca(OH)2/g sucrose. Shorter times require less lime. After preservation, the juice was carbonated and filtered, and the resulting sludge pelletized. Due to their high organic content, the pellets were too weak for calcination temperatures used in the SLK. The organics must be decreased prior to pelletization and sodium must be supplemented as a binding agent. Long-term lime pretreatment of bagasse showed two delignification phases: bulk (rapid) and residual (slow). These were modeled by two simultaneous first-order reactions. Treatments with air purging and higher temperatures (50 ? 57oC) delignified more effectively, especially during the residual phase, thus yielding higher cellulase-enzyme digestibilities after 2 ? 8 weeks of treatment. At temperatures > 60oC, pure oxygen purging is preferred. Fresh bagasse was of better quality than old bagasse. Treatment with NaOH yielded a larger bulk delignification phase than Ca(OH)2. Long-term lime pulping of bagasse was unsuitable for copy-quality paper, but it was appropriate for strawboard and other filler applications.