Bradley

Biomass to Ethanol/Methanol Process - Problem Statement

As human energy consumption continues to increase substantially, the search for sustainable
sources has peaked. With added pressure from interregional politics and policy, alternative
energy sources aside from conventional fossil fuels are becoming
necessary. Feedstock abundance and environmentally friendly traits of biomass-to-fuel processes
have prompted efforts to provide a solution to the energy dilemma. Cellulosic material is one of
the promising biomass feedstock at the forefront of the solution. Switchgrass, a cellulosic
material, has the promising ability to be converted through chemical processing to usable fuels
such as ethanol and methanol.

The aim of this project is to develop and define an economically viable process to convert
switchgrass feedstock into usable biofuels. The Biomass Material to Ethanol/Methanol Team at
the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will be fronting the design development, supervised
by Professional Engineer, Dr. Jim Henry. The team is comprised of chemical engineering
students Brian Heflin, Joshua Rogers, and Brad Newman. Two process methods of methanol and
ethanol production are currently being considered by the team. First, a fermentation method
involving feedstock hydrolysis/saccharification; second, a process involving supercritical steam
and gasification to decompose feedstock is also being considered. Effort is currently being made
to develop reliable process flows, operation requirements, and process economics. Process
optimization shall be conducted after these developments are complete. The team is set to
present an overview of project findings to Dr. Henry and the board of directors on April 25,
2012.

Brandon
The Chattanooga area sits on a large shale bedrock formation and the possibility exists that
fracking wells will be built to extract natural gas from this shale. It is therefore possible that
refineries will be produced in the area to seperate components from this natural gas and plants
will be built to use these components. Ethane is a major component of natural gas and ethane is
commonly used to produce ethylene, a major precursor in several materials ranging from plastics
to detergents. This project focuses on establishing a process to convert ethane gas to ethylene.
In establishing a process to convert ethane gas to ethylene the project will analyze mass and
energy balances for the process along with design considerations for several main components of
the system. Design components that will be analzyed include the steam cracking reactor, heat
exchangers along the process streams and compressors used to compress the gases into liquid.

Brian
The following was found to be representative of the current problem:

Currently, research is being done on switch grass to ethanol. But, a plant process needs
to be found for Vonore, Tennessee, using super critical steam and switchgrass to
produce Ethanol as the final product.

It is our goal to design, a plant prototype for switch grass to ethanol using
super critical steam, for the University of Tennessee (Genera Energy) by
completing the following:

Chemcad design containing super critical steam and switch grass as the feed, to produce
ethanol
Produce an economic analysis showing that by using super critical steam in the process
will cut the price dramatically
Produce a presentation and report for our clients so eventually this process can be built
to benefit for the people in Vonore, TN.

The final design will be presented to Dr. Henry and broad of directors on
April 25th, 2012. This will include a process involving super critical steam
with switch grass to produce ethanol will help provide an additional
alternative for fuel. It will benefit people in society by giving them a
cheaper fuel source, and if further study it can help with being used in the
water treatment process by using its byproducts to help with Oder control.

Charles
Since the formation of the Clean Water Act in 1972, wastewater treatment plants have been a
means of removing waste from manicupal wastewater. Many cities would merely put these
wastewater treatment plants downstream from their city to minimize the odor problems.
However, with population growth and increasing urbanization, cities have grown closer and
closer to their wastewater treatment plants.
In Chattanooga, Moccassin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant (MBWWTP) has had much
development surrounding over the years. The golf corse, mental hospital, and soon to be national
park surround the plant, and often the odor has been reported at the shopping areas surrounding
Green Life. Rather than uprooting the entire plant to a new location, where more than likely the
population would eventually expand to, it is much more economical to minimize the plants
odorous output.
As wastewater flows through sewers, the oxygen in the sewer is used up causing anaerobic
conditions. This creates hydrogen sulfide, whose rotten egg odor causes a majority of this smell.
In MBWWTP 86% of this hydrogen sulfide is released through the headworks and the primary
clarifier of the plant. These two units will be capped off and the hydrogen sulfide will be
treated. Throughout this project I will explore four major means of treating the odor: chemical
scrubbers, biotrickling scrubbers, biofilters, and carbon adsorbtion. Then a chemical scrubber
will be used as the means of removing the hydrogen sulfide to be reported to General Manager
Henry and his associates on April 26, 2012.

Daniel

Eric Snider at Sunday, March 4, 2012 3:43:07 PM EST

Word File: Problem Statement.docx

Problem Statement
In todays world, alternative fuels are needed more than ever. Conventional fuels, such as
coal, natural gas, and fossil fuel, are constantly being depleted; however, the worlds dependency
on these fuels is still growing. Additionally, the price on foreign fuels is ever increasing. For
these reasons, the US and the world are pursuing alternative fuel sources to lessen the
dependency on conventional fuels. One alternative fuel is biodiesel; biodiesel can be produced
from vegetable oil or animal fat and thus can be used to alleviate the foreign fuel dependency. In
order for biodiesel to be a viable alternative fuel source, an industrial-scale biodiesel production
process needs to be improved. Compared to current designs and fossil fuel, the process must be
cost competitive.
The purpose of this project is to develop an industrial process to create biodiesel from oil
extracted from algae cells. Algae oil has been a main focus for many research efforts for the last
couple of decades because it is not primarily used as food, can be grown quickly, and does not
require much area to grow. Algae-based biodiesel is still early in development and companies
have had issues efficiently lysing, or extracting, the oil from the cells. While no one has found a
way to do this efficiently, many believe that algae oil could be the answer to lessening the
worlds dependency on fossil fuels.
This projects customers, Dr. Jim Henry and the board of directors, have provided some
objectives that must be met by the design created. Nutrients must be taken from Moccasin Bend
Wastewater Treatment Plant. These nutrients will help grow algae cells for which the oil will be
extracted. The project design must also be on an industrial scale; for this project a biodiesel
production rate of 100,000 metric tons per year will be used. Also, the project must be as ecofriendly as possible and be completed by late April 2012. All of these objectives and needs set by
the projects customer will be taken into consideration in the chosen design. The final outcome
of this project will be in the form of a design report and presentation to the board of directors in
late April 2012. The design report will layout the overall process for creating biodiesel from
algae cells on an industrial scale using Moccasin Bend as a source of nutrients.

Jaclyn Ridge at Tuesday, March 6, 2012 10:00:33 AM EST

Currently, there are currently over 13,000[1] active and old landfills in the U.S. Landfills
emission can be hazardous and cause heath issues. And with the average American
generating 5lbs of waste a day [2], one may wonder how long before we run out of
space for these landfills. In addition, new EPA regulations are requiring fossil plants to
close down. Additional energy will be needed to help replace the energy load from these
fossil plants. Municipal waste can be a cost effective way to create energy and increase
jobs, instead of filling up landfills.

The purpose of this project is to design an efficient and cost effect method of turning
municipal waste into electricity. The basis for this project will be the amount of municipal
waste Chattanooga generates in a day, 340 tons, and the Pedcon process. The
municipal waste to electricity process, including cost, must be finished by late April.

[1]http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/Landfills.htm

[2]http://www.epa.gov/region7/waste/solidwaste/reduce_waste.htm

Jibin George at Thursday, March 1, 2012 3:05:25 PM EST

The objective of this project is to design a solvent extraction unit to extract copper from the
pregnant leach solution collected from heaps used in bioleaching. I have worked as an intern for
a mining company since May '11 and have gained experience learning the overall bioleaching
process. The goal is to transfer as much of the copper ions in the PLS as possible to produce
copper stripped raffinate to recycle back on top of the heaps. This process is carried out by using
an organic such as kerosene to carry the ligand LIX-N65 which forms a copper ligand complex
and is then transported by the organic towards electrowinning into copper cathode plates. The
design is conducted here at UTC for copper mining companies located all over the world. The
major copper ore deposits are found in Arizona, New Mexico, Chile, Peru, Congo, etc. The
project is expected to be completed for a presentation on April 24th, 2012 to the
board members for their approval.

Joshua Rogers at Tuesday, March 6, 2012 2:25:07 AM EST

Last Edited:Tuesday, March 6, 2012 2:27:08 AM EST
After merging groups to look at converting material to methanol/ethanol, the problem statement is based on Brian's
original topic (switchgrass to ethanol/methanol).

Problem Statement
As the amount of fossil fuels decrease, and prices of conventional fuels such as oil and natural gas
increase, research is being conducted to establish a renewable alternative fuel source. Such an
alternative fuel source is ethanol. Ethanol can be produced by breaking down cellulosic biomass.
The purpose of this project is to develop a project design that has an input of switchgrass and
produces ethanol as a final output. Supercritical steam will be used in the process. This project is
being completed for Genera Energy and DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol (DDCE), located at
Niles Ferry Industrial Park in Vonore, Tennessee.
Bradley Newman, Brian Heflin, and Joshua Rogers, chemical engineers at the University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga, are working on this project under the supervision of general manager Dr.
Jim Henry. On April 25, 2012, the team will present a final project design report and presentation to
Dr. Henry and the board of directors. This report and presentation will attempt to appeal to the
board that this project is justified and should be pursued.

Rebecca Palmer at Tuesday, March 6, 2012 6:29:06 PM EST

As the largest carpet manufacturing company in the world, Shaw Industries recognizes its
responsibility to the environment and is working to reduce the impact of waste carpet sent to
landfills. Shaw Plant R2, in Dalton GA, is known as the "reclaim-to-energy" plant; it converts
approximately 42,000 tons of carpet waste into steam and electricity that is used to power nearby
Shaw plants. The final wasted byproduct of shredding and burning reclaimed carpet is a very
acidic ash powder that has one attractive feature: 40% of the ash is calcium hydroxide which,
when it exists as a single component, can be easily converted into calcium carbonate and reused
in the carpet manufacturing process.
Separating any calcium hydroxide from the ash, however, has proven difficult. Currently, Shaw
must pay to have the dangerous ash waste product shipped out of the plant and disposed. Josh
Oliver, systems manager at Shaw Plant R2, has retained Rebecca Palmer, a senior Chemical
Engineering student at UTC, to investigate the design of a process that will make reclamation of
calcium carbonate from waste carpet possible.
Resources for this project are sparse; only a brief lab analysis of the ash from which Shaw
wishes to reclaim calcium carbonate is available. Other possible resources are websites and
textbooks. No actual ash has been made available for experimental research. Any success that
this project entertains will be presented to the Board of Engineers on April 23, 2012.

Sarah Torgeson at Monday, March 5, 2012 9:50:27 PM EST

As fossil fuels continue to deplete, our dependency on fossil fuels have increased. Because of
this, the demand for alternative fuels has increased and many different options have been
found and are currently being researched and produced. Biodiesel has arisen as a viable option
due to its flexibility and relatively low production costs.
Biodiesel can be produced from many different oils and free-fatty acids. The main cost of
production is the oil or free-fatty acid used and the cost of production can be greatly reduced if
cheap oil can be used efficiently. A lot of people are looking towards algae oil to fix this problem
because its natural and can be grown cheaply and easily. The problem with algae oil has been
on finding an efficient way to lyse, or extract, the oil from the algae cells.
The purpose of this project is to design a cost effective and efficient process for the production
of biodiesel from algae oil. The process designed must be for a large-scale production and
produce 10,000 metric tons per year. The nutrients to grow the algae must be taken from
Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project must be completed by late April and
include an entire process from the oil extraction of algae cells to the purification of the end
product of biodiesel.

Valentine Mbamalu at Tuesday, March 6, 2012 11:53:38 AM EST

Ethane Cracking Problem Statement.
There is a large deposit of natural gas in United State, from this natural gas ethane is isolated
and could be used in cracking process for the production of ethylene. Ethane cracking process
involves the mixing of steam at about 300oC with ethane and this mixture is heated further in
the furnace to about 840oc thereby cracking the ethane to produce ethylene, hydrogen and
other by-product. Ethylene is widely used in chemical industry; it is the largest manufactured
organic compound in the world at about 120 million tons per year.
The UTC Chemical Engineering board have requested for a design project for an ethane
cracking plant to be established in Tennessee and Dr. Jim Henry the project director have
requested for a design of an ethane cracking plant.
The objective of this project is to design an ethane cracking plant that will have an ethylene
output of o.5 million metric tons per year. The project will be designed having in mind the
economical, technical and environmental impact of the project on the immediate community
and the world at large.
The final design project will be made up of 4 units; furnace, quenching tower, condensing and
distillation. A design project report will be presented to the board of director on 04/24/2012
and it will contain all process flow diagrams, economic analysis, etc. that is needed for cracking
of ethane and the storage of its product and by-product.

Christopher Tatum