Novel biorefinery-Integrated-Kraft-pulping network for sustainable development

Abstract

Integration of the biorefinery concept to the existing Kraft-pulping process is undertaken to achieve a more sustainable development. This paper aims at developing a novel biorefinery-integrated-Kraft-pulping network with improved profitability, energy self-sufficiency and minimum CO2 emission by employing technologies consisting of biofuel and biochemical productions, biomass gasification together with CO2 capture and utilization. Three scenarios, including (I) the production of gasification-based dimethyl ether (DME); (II) the co-production of DME and succinic acid; and (III) the co-production of DME and succinic acid coupled with the CO2 utilization, have been investigated. Among all scenarios, Scenario II exhibits the best economic performances as highlighted by the 74% increase of profit compared to the conventional process. Scenario III achieves the highest energy efficiency at 39% and an improved environmental performance due to the 65% reduction of CO2 emission compared to the conventional process with only 0.7% profit reduction. Comparing to the biorefinery-integrated-Soda-pulping networks proposed by the previous work, the biorefinery-integrated-Kraft-pulping networks show higher performance on both economic and environmental improvements. Thereby confirming that the integration of the biorefinery network can improve the sustainability and enhance the economic benefit of the Kraft-pulping process beyond the conventional process.