7 Process Integration in Bio-oxycombustion Systems
Process integration has been widely used to further increase production systems
efficiency. This concept focuses on the combination of technologies, in which the
raw materials used can generate various types of products. Biobased systems may
be suitable to minimize environmental impact, use of fossil inputs, and capital
expenditures and to maximize the overall efficiency of an energy generation process
or industry, provided they are obtained by total chain integration (Budzianowski
and Postawa 2016).
Microalgae-mediated processes have recently seen growing demands for
research and technological development, due to the versatility of these microorganisms in the CO 2 biotransformation within photobioreactors into valuable
metabolic products (Jacob-Lopes et al. 2010).
Therefore, process integration using microalgae is a sustainable and economically viable route for improved sustainability, and it can be achieved by two types
of integration basically: (i) mass integration, through effluents reuse and water
recycling, and (ii) energy integration by heat recovery (Moncada et al. 2016).
By way of example, Fig. 4 describes a bioprocess, which represents the gain in
thermal performance of a bio-oxycombustion furnace integrated into a photobioreactor. The thermal images show the superiority of use of the photobioreactor
exhaust gases when compared to the injection of different oxidizers and at different
cell residence times, during petroleum coke burning (Jacob-Lopes et al. 2017).
In this context, for bio-oxycombustion system proposed, mass integration occurs
by direct conversion of GHG, especially CO 2 (gaseous effluent integration) in
photobioreactors. Subsequently, part of the CO 2 is converted into photosynthetic
metabolism by-products, such as biomass, inorganic salts, exopolymers, O 2 , and
VOCs. In parallel, energy integration is made by recovering of the photobioreactor
gaseous phase, which contains the compounds of interest: VOCs (heat integration),
O 2, and unconverted CO 2 released from the exhaust gases. These are integrated into
Fig. 4 Thermal performance of the integrated bio-oxycombustion system. Adapted of
Jacob-Lopes et al. (2017)
13 Biofuels from Microalgae …
285
Process integration has been widely used to further increase production systems
efficiency. This concept focuses on the combination of technologies, in which the
raw materials used can generate various types of products. Biobased systems may
be suitable to minimize environmental impact, use of fossil inputs, and capital
expenditures and to maximize the overall efficiency of an energy generation process
or industry, provided they are obtained by total chain integration (Budzianowski
and Postawa 2016).
Microalgae-mediated processes have recently seen growing demands for
research and technological development, due to the versatility of these microorganisms in the CO 2 biotransformation within photobioreactors into valuable
metabolic products (Jacob-Lopes et al. 2010).
Therefore, process integration using microalgae is a sustainable and economically viable route for improved sustainability, and it can be achieved by two types
of integration basically: (i) mass integration, through effluents reuse and water
recycling, and (ii) energy integration by heat recovery (Moncada et al. 2016).
By way of example, Fig. 4 describes a bioprocess, which represents the gain in
thermal performance of a bio-oxycombustion furnace integrated into a photobioreactor. The thermal images show the superiority of use of the photobioreactor
exhaust gases when compared to the injection of different oxidizers and at different
cell residence times, during petroleum coke burning (Jacob-Lopes et al. 2017).
In this context, for bio-oxycombustion system proposed, mass integration occurs
by direct conversion of GHG, especially CO 2 (gaseous effluent integration) in
photobioreactors. Subsequently, part of the CO 2 is converted into photosynthetic
metabolism by-products, such as biomass, inorganic salts, exopolymers, O 2 , and
VOCs. In parallel, energy integration is made by recovering of the photobioreactor
gaseous phase, which contains the compounds of interest: VOCs (heat integration),
O 2, and unconverted CO 2 released from the exhaust gases. These are integrated into
Fig. 4 Thermal performance of the integrated bio-oxycombustion system. Adapted of
Jacob-Lopes et al. (2017)
13 Biofuels from Microalgae …
285