IRREVERSIBILITY GENERATION IN SUGAR, ALCOHOL AND BIOGAS INTEGRATED PRODUCTIONS

Abstract

In this work, the stages of losses and lower exergeticefficiency are determined whenthe sugar production process is integrated with others for the production of productssuch as biogas, torula yeast and electricity. The study is carried out in three scenarios ofintegrated processes for obtaining the indicated products. A sugar factory in whichsugar and electricity areproduced is considered as the base scenario and from this;asecond scenario is inferred in which alcohol isproduced from the molasses ofthe sugarprocessand biogas from the vinasse ofthealcohol distillation process. Finally, a thirdscenario is exergetically evaluated in which sugar, electricity, biogas and alcohol areproduced, but this last one from juices and molasses ofthe sugar process. For theexergetic analysis the integrated scheme was divided into 8 subsystems. From theanalysis ofresults, the major subsystems that generate irreversibilities are: cogeneration(64.36-65.98%), juice extraction (8.85-9.85%), crystallization and cooking, (8.48-9.02%), fermentation (4.12-4.94%) anddistillation (2.74-3.2%). Improvements areproposed to minimize irreversibilities, including the thermal integration of processes,technological modifications in the fermentation process and the introduction of moreefficient equipment for the generationof electricity. The exergetic efficiency is between78.95-81.10%, obtaining greater exergetic efficiency in the scheme of joint operation toproduce sugar, alcohol and biogas.