Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
2001 S. Lincoln Ave.
URBANA,IL 61801
Performing Department
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
Non Technical Summary
Lowering the carbon intensity (CI) of corn-based ethanol is the overarching goal of this project. Specifically, we aim to replace a minimum of 40% of the natural gas used in ethanol manufacture with a renewably sourced fuel gas and achieve a minimum of 18% reduction in ethanol CI through a low temperature (~200 ºC), non-precious metal catalyst facilitated, hydrothermal process without hydrogen addition.Generation of fuel gas from thin stillage will require pursuing the following objectives: (a) Synthesize, characterize, and identify non-precious metal catalyst(s) to efficiently generate a mixture of methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen from the organics present in thin stillage, (b) Test identified catalyst(s) in scaled-up batch and continuous flow systems to assess performance and gather engineering data (c) Develop and validate mitigation strategies such as thin-stillage fractionation to overcome catalyst deactivation, as necessary, (d) Integrate the proposed technology along with heat integration and water management into the current ethanol manufacturing flowsheet, (e) Perform a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to determine process economics, and (f) Conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) using GREET to establish credibly the reduction in corn-based ethanol's CI.By making corn ethanol greener, the nearly 200 plants across rural America can make progress towards improving the sustainability of current and next-generation biofuels, advance the ethanol to SAF commercialization, support almost 70,000 jobs, and offset nearly 2% of US transportation sector missions.
Animal Health Component
30%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
30%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
Long-term goals and supporting objectives: Lowering the carbon intensity (CI) of corn-based ethanol is the overarching goal of this project. Specifically, we aim to replace a minimum of 40% of the natural gas used in ethanol manufacture with a renewably sourced fuel gas and achieve a minimum of 18% reduction in ethanol CI through a low temperature (~200 ºC), non-precious metal catalyst facilitated, hydrothermal process without hydrogen addition.Production of fuel gas from thin stillage (TS) - an organics stream internally available within ethanol plants - through a low-temperature catalytic process will require pursuing the following objectives:1. Synthesize, characterize, and identify non-precious metal catalyst(s) to efficiently generate a mixture of methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen from the organics present in TS;2. Test identified catalyst(s) in scaled-up batch and continuous flow systems to:generate mass balances and establish fuel gas yields;obtain kinetic parameters; andassess performance stability;3. Develop and validate mitigation strategies such as thin-stillage fractionation and use of sulfur scavengers to overcome catalyst deactivation, as necessary;4. Integrate the proposed technology with heat integration and water management into the current ethanol manufacturing flowsheet;5. Perform a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to determine process economics; and6. Conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) using GREET to credibly establish the CI reduction in corn-based ethanol's CI.
Project Methods
The major methods for the projects include(1) Catalyst Development and Evaluation: The methods involved are laboratory based supplemented by literature reviews and applicable computational strategies. The above methods will be used to develop and evaluate catalysts for fuel gas generation efficiency from TS. Evaluation will be conducted through mass balance, yield, selectivity, reaction kinetics, and catalyst stability studies in batch and flow systems.(2) TEA and LCA: The methods involved are through simulation and a generally accepted computational framework (GREET).