Regular articleOptimal design of an efficient, profitable and sustainable biorefinery producing acetone, butanol and ethanol: Influence of the in-situ separation on the purification structure

- Multi-criteria assessment for the selection of the optimal process.
- Production of n-butanol as biofuel from wood.
- Process modelling and simulation of the biorefinery superstructure.
- Evaluation of the potential butanol recovery on the process performances.

The bio-based n-butanol has major potential to replace fossil-based products due to, on the first hand, the decline of crude oil and, on the other hand, since the butanol has high potential as fuel. To set its production in industrial scale the development of tools designing the process is needed. In our work, we focus on second generation biorefinery using wood as feedstock. The biorefinery was composed by the pretreatment, the hydrolysis, the fermentation, the butanol recovery and the purification. The proposed methodology is a multiscale decision support tool for the selection of the optimal process design of the biorefinery producing biobutanol. The optimal biorefinery is selected from the superstructure recapping all feasible scenarios after process modelling and simulation, economic and environmental evaluations and energy integration. Thus, the optimal process is profitable, efficient and sustainable. Moreover, to identify the influence of the biobutanol recovery on the fermentation's performances, the process modelling includes the retroaction of biobutanol recovery. In this study, three biobutanol recovery and four purification scenarios are combined and then processes are compared to select the optimal biorefinery for the bio based butanol production.