Development Trends of 1,3-Butadiene Production Process from Lignin through Process Simulation

Abstract

Process simulation can reveal the optimum conditions for the process which consists of each unit operation, or theoretically investigates individual processes. The author has developed the 1,3-butadiene (1,3-BD) production process from lignin through simulation. The balance of payment (BP) was considered as an economic indicator of the process and was calculated based on mass balance and energy balance. This means the income from processing a unit weight of lignin. The process simulation indicated that the process via dimethyl ether (DME) exhibited the highest BP among the three proposed processes. The promising 1,3-BD production process consisted of lignin gasification, DME synthesis, n-butene synthesis, and isomerization/dehydrogenation. Considering lignin gasification power generation as a competitive process, the 1,3-BD production process was improved based on the BP. The enhancement of the n-butene yield from DME is a technical issue, and the catalytic performance for competitive economics was revealed through process simulation. The findings are an effective guideline for experimental verification. Process simulation and experimental verification play a complementary role in accelerating the commercialization of biomass conversion processes.