Profile: Bogumiłów Ethanol-To-Gasoline plant
Type of post: PROFILE OF A COMMERCIAL BIOREFINERY.
Name
|
Bogumiłów Ethanol-To-Gasoline plant.
|
Company
|
|
Location
|
Bogumiłów, near Łódź (Poland).
|
Category
|
Commercial.
|
Status
|
Running.
|
Feedstock
|
Bioethanol.
|
Products
and production capacity
|
- Gaseous
biohydrocarbons.
-
Liquid biohydrocarbons (<210ºC).
- Aromatic
biohydrocarbons (>210ºC).
22,500 metric tons of those products per
year.
|
Employment
|
About
80 people work in the operation of the facility.
|
Timeline
|
- Investment decision: 2006.
- Construction works begin: November
2014.
- Start-up: June 2017.
|
Note: Strictly,
the facility is not a biorefinery but it can be considered as a part of a
greater system of biorefining since the ethanol used as feedstock is made from
biomass (biomass-to-liquids system). 100%
of the carbon present in the final product came from biomass.
Figure 1. Bogumiłów
Ethanol-To-Gasoline plant (courtesy of Ekobenz)
Ekobenz was
established in 2006 as a special purpose vehicle for the execution of projects
in the production of methanol and synthetic hydrocarbons using innovative
technologies. This year, the company has commissioned its first biohydrocarbon
catalytic production plant.
The facility has
been constructed on a site of 5.5 ha located in Bogumiłów and the production
infrastructure is placed over an area of 3.8 ha. It has a production capacity
of approximately 22,500 tons per year of synthetic fuels. The plant has been
built according to modern design standards enabling the fulfilment of strict
environmental protection regulations. The applied equipment solutions allow to achieve
high economic efficiency in the production process and greatly reduce the
environmental impact while maintaining exceptional care for work safety.
Figure 2.
Simplified flow diagram of the process (courtesy of Ekobenz)
The plant is
based on the ETG (Ethanol-To-Gasoline) technology. The feedstock is ethyl
alcohol produced from biomass. The chemical changes occurring during the process
result in irreversible chemical transformation of alcohol into synthetic
hydrocarbons and water.
The process is
conducted in a system of reactors operating in series. The reaction of
catalytic conversion of ethyl alcohol to synthetic hydrocarbons occurs in
gaseous phase in two stages:
- The first stage
is a strongly endothermic reaction of alcohol decomposition which produces
ethylene and steam.
- The second
stage consists of complex strongly exothermic reactions of synthesis of
hydrocarbons from ethylene.
The hydrocarbon
mixture produced in the process is transferred to a stabilising column, where
it is split into a liquid fraction and a gaseous fraction. The liquid fraction
is subsequently separated into individual products in a distillation column. The
entire process requires only a small amount of external energy.
The main product is
a new generation synthetic fuel in the form of liquid biohydrocarbons. These
are some of its characteristics:
- It find
application as a biocomponent of engine gasoline and as a raw material in the
chemical industry.
- It is
chemically compatible with conventional gasoline and can be used for all types
of gasoline motors.
- It provides
high calorific value (43 MJ/kg), noticeably higher than raw bioethanol (27
MJ/kg).
- It enables huge
potential possibilities to decrease level of GHG emission in the final fuel. NOx
emission reaches levels lower than 30% of the standards.
- It does not
contain sulfur compounds and benzene content is significantly lower compared to
the regular gasoline.
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REFERENCES:
2 Information provided by Ekobenz.
