Analysis of Safety and Economic Objectives for Intensified Algal Biodiesel Process

• Published in: Control and Safety Analysis of Intensified Chemical Processes p. 1
• Main Authors: Deshpande, Gunavant, Sawarkar, Ashish N, Patle, Dipesh Shikchand
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim, Germany John Wiley & Sons 2024; Wiley‐VCH GmbH
• Subjects: break‐even cost; Chemistry & Chemical Engineering; Control Systems; General References; in situ; individual risk; intensification; multi‐objective optimization; Process Design, Control & Automation; ultrasound
• ISBN: 3527352627; 9783527352623
• DOI: 10.1002/9783527843657.ch12

The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of process intensification on the economics and safety of processes. Specifically, the present study analyzes economic and safety objectives for ultrasound‐assisted and ionic liquid‐catalyzed in situ biodiesel production from wet microalgae (referred to as alternative 1) and the same process (i.e. alternative 1) further intensified by a divided wall column ( DWC ) and multistage vapor recompression ( MVR ) (referred to as alternative 2). Both processes are modeled in Aspen Plus V10 and optimized using MS Excel‐based multi‐objective optimization ( MOO ) framework, considering individual risk ( IR ) as a safety objective and break‐even cost ( BEC ) as an economic objective. Optimization of each alternative resulted in considerable improvement in terms of BEC and IR. Further, to facilitate a fair comparison between alternative 1 and alternative 2, one solution determined from the Pareto‐optimal front of each alternative using a simple additive weighing method is used. Comparison of the optimized alternatives reveals that the BEC of alternative 2 is lower by ∼8% (i.e. from $2.98 to $2.74 per kg), whereas the IR is higher by ∼62% (i.e. from 8.9 × 10 −6 to 1.44 × 10 −5 ). The reasons for the trade‐offs are contemplated in this chapter.