Chemical and Biological Engineering

Chemical and Biological Engineering

• CHE- 1 Isomerization of C5's and C6's

  Ryan Miller, Raj Patel, Tony Truong, Jared Wallace Matthew Hipkins
  Advisor: Dr. Joseph Petracco

  Rising demand for gasoline with higher burning efficiency prompts the need to improve the octane rating of gasoline mixtures. High quality paraffins not only lengthen the combustion engine’s lifespan but also reduce its carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. Among the components of low molecular weight paraffins (C4-C8), straight chain pentane and hexane (n-C5 and n-C6) have the lowest research octane number (RON). This study focuses on designing an isomerization unit to convert these components into iso-pentane and iso-hexane respectively. This project is in collaboration with Monroe Energy, a refinery in Trainer, PA, to augment their production capability and revenue by enhancing the RON of approximately 26,000 barrels of paraffin per day. The design discusses the necessary separation procedures, the use of zeolite catalyst, and the optimal operating temperature and pressure for the isomerization process. The reaction chemistry is modeled based on the thermodynamic and kinetic data that have been experimentally determined from literature. Through extensive equipment sizing and gauging the cost of implementation, operation, and maintenance, a thorough economic analysis is performed to evaluate the profitability of the isomerization unit. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to potentially further improve the RON of the product streams and minimize the utility costs of the unit. The estimated cost to build the unit is $182 million over the first year and is projected to lose $414 million over the plant lifetime with no payback period due to the unprofitability. The projected non-discounted cash flow rate of return is -11.32%, making it an unfavorable investment for the company to consider.

• CHE-2 Thorium Molten Salt Breeder Reactor

  Matt Gavenda, Will Gibson, Javier Lazo, Nicole Tavormina, Ed Luckiewizc
  Advisor: Dr. Christopher Peters

  The rising threat of catastrophic climate change caused by CO2 emissions has reinvigorated the search for clean energy generation around the world. Nuclear power has been present since the 1950’s and research continued through the early 1970’s in the United States until government funding was pulled due to lack of public support caused by major nuclear disasters. In the mid to late 1960’s the Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a next generation nuclear reactor using molten Lithium and Beryllium Fluoride salt (FLiBe) and Thorium bred into fissile Uranium fuel to generate energy. This design was chosen on account of its inherent safety measures and fuel efficiency and cost. Molten salt reactors are considered safe because of the impossibility of runaway reactions due to the fuel being contained within a liquid salt that can be quickly drained and the reaction stopped. A breeder reactor is also preferred since Thorium is four times as abundant as uranium, and an optimal breeder would provide a Uranium to Thorium ratio of over 1. Much of this proposed design is based on the work done by the researchers at ORNL to create a quarter scale 250 MWe nuclear power plant steppingstone to a full scale 1000 MWe power plant. 

  The chosen location for the plant is Winona, Minnesota because of its access to the Minnesota River, a large enough source of water to provide for the cooling tower. The nuclear reactor will require about 44.5 kg of thorium and 11.1 kg of uranium in molten FLiBe to maintain a stable critical reaction. This molten salt and fuel is then separated from the fission products and recycled to the reactor in order to decrease the amount of nuclear waste. Currently, a thorium molten salt breeder reactor is not an economically feasible project due to the high operation costs and relatively low market price of electricity.

• CHE-3 1,4-Butanediol Production from Glucose Fermentation

  Anna Buss, Jamie Connelly, Jonathan Schwenk, Mingwang Jiang
  Advisor: Dr. Michael Keane

  The biologically derived production of 1,4 butanediol (BDO) occurs through E. Coli batch fermentation in the presence of oxygen. E. Coli cell culture is first grown in batch wise medium preparation with the addition of various salts, nutrients, water, and air. Following this, biological synthesis of BDO occurs by the conversion of 45,000 kg/hr glucose fed into 5 identical 922 m3 fermenters at 37 ℃ and 1 atm. Purification of the resulting BDO product occurs through several continuous separation steps including centrifugation, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, ion exchange chromatography, and distillation. This process leads to an expected BDO production of 69.2 kT/year of 99.6% purity.

  Most solids of the fermenter effluent are removed continuously with centrifugation and filtration. Specialized equipment required for this process includes 2 ion-exchange chromatography columns, which are filled with appropriate cation and anion exchange resins to separate out dissociated salts. Sizing and pressure drop for filters and ion-exchange are based on hand calculations. The distillation columns produce liquid waste streams that flow at 63,300 kg/hr with 95.1% water and most of the fermentation byproducts. Other necessary separation units have been sized and configured to maximize BDO production rate and purity. Pressure and temperature conditions for all process streams have also been determined based on expected pressure drops across process units and temperatures needed to achieve adequate separations. All necessary compressors, pumps, and heat exchangers have been designed to achieve these conditions.

  The plant will be in Lima, Ohio. Total annual profit associated with this process is $35.5 MM/yr, which is expected to be achieved by the fourth year after plant startup. This leads to a net present value after 20 years of plant operation of $72 MM and an IRR of 17%. As a result, this project is recommended to be pursued.

• CHE-4 Re-Nyckel Neopentyl Glycol Production

  Ranim Ferkh, Yena Kim, Emerald Smucker, Nickole Xenakes
  Advisor: Dr. John Speidel

  A process to produce Neo-pentyl Glycol (NPG), a polymer used in the base of resin coatings, lubricants, and paints, was designed by the company Re-Nyckel and simulated virtually using ASPEN V-10. Two different commercialized methods for NPG production, a hydrogenation process and a Cannizzaro process, are currently used in industry and were considered by Re-Nyckel for this process design. The hydrogenation process was ultimately chosen for this design since the Cannizzaro method includes by-products with no financial value that are difficult to remove from the final product. The process begins with the reaction of Isobutyraldehyde and formaldehyde to form an intermediate product, which is hydrogenated and then purified to make the final NPG product. Raney-Nickel and Triethylamine are used throughout the process as catalysts to achieve a high production rate and purity of NPG. Mizushima, Japan was selected as the plant location due to its local resources and proximity to efficient transportation.

  Following an economic feasibility study of this design using ASPEN, it is recommended that this project be considered for implementation and completion, since it is feasible and economically profitable. According to the study, beginning in the fifth year of estimated plant life, the discounted after-tax rate of return exceeds the hurdle rate of 12% at 21% and continues to increase to 38% in the year 2029. The total estimated capital cost is $1,863,000. In the fourth year of plant life, 100% production capacity is reached at 49.62 million lb/year and an estimated $169.7 million in revenue. After optimizing the process by including recycle streams for 5% of the catalyst triethylamine, the most expensive raw material price is reduced by $1.22 MMUSD per year. In addition, recycling water and octanol, assuming 2% loss, decreases the manufacturing cost from 130.7 MMUSD per year to 125.2 MMUSD per year at full plant capacity. Based on these results and recycle optimizations, Re-Nyckel’s plant process is highly profitable.

• CHE-5 Zero-Carbon Hydrogen Extraction Process from Depleted Oil Fields

  Srinidi Badhrinathan, Daniel Chen, Kyla Gardiola, Pavel Beinarovich
  Advisor: Ed Andjeski

  This project is an in-situ combustion process designed to recover hydrogen from underground reservoirs of heavy hydrocarbons, based on Proton Technologies’ Hygienic Earth Energy process. The plant will be located a few miles outside of Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, at a depleted former oil field. The process involves pumping oxygen into a heated reservoir to drive a series of gasification reactions and produce a mixture of carbon oxides and hydrogen. A hydrogen-selective membrane is then utilized within the wells to enable recovery of the hydrogen while ensuring the carbon oxides and other syngas components remain underground, resulting in net zero-carbon operation. The 4 semi-cylindrical hydrogen separation membranes will be constructed from a palladium-copper alloy, which will cost approximately $1000/ft2, and hydrogen will diffuse through by means of a proton-electron recombination mechanism. A portion of the produced hydrogen will be used in on-site generators to power the equipment aboveground, ensuring that no carbon-intensive energy source is required. The plant is calculated to produce hydrogen at a rate of 17,000 lbs/day from an oxygen input of 400,000 lbs/day. The estimated required capital is $16 million USD; the annual cost of operating the plant was calculated to be around $6.5 million for the first two years, and $2.3 million afterwards. The discounted cash flow rate of return was calculated to be 9.99%. Finally, the selling cost of hydrogen was set at the competitive price of $2.5/lb H2 to help establish hydrogen as a commercially viable clean fuel. The feasibility analysis of this process showed that it is economically favorable due to the high demand for hydrogen, existing oil field infrastructure that can be repurposed, and the negligible cost of raw materials. Thus, it is recommended to move ahead with this project design once preliminary site surveys are conducted, and reservoir geography is determined to be suitable for this purpose.

• CHE-6 CO2 Free Production of Ethanol from Sugarcane Bagasse

  Sidney Daniel, Crystal Jain, Manthan Patel, Nick Sternby
  Advisor: Dr. Nicolas Alvarez

  The United States market for ethanol is versatile with uses ranging from fuel and gasoline additives to a primary solvent in the manufacturing of perfumes. Here, the production of fuel-grade bioethanol using a novel method that eliminates greenhouse gas byproducts is explored. A partnership will be established with Florida sugarcane mills as waste bagasse from this process will be shipped to the ethanol production plant as a raw material. Conventional bioethanol is produced from the fermentation of sugars, generating CO2. To avoid direct CO2 generation, our process utilizes 4 complex steps: 1) degradation of bagasse using steam explosion 2) anaerobic fermentation of sugars using a novel bacterial co-culture to produce acetic acid 3) esterification of acetic acid using reactive distillation to produce ethyl acetate, and 4) hydrogenolysis of ethyl acetate using a plug flow reactor packed with copper-zinc catalyst to yield ethanol. Product purity is specified by requirements for the commodity exchange of ethanol. The product is 99.9% ethanol by weight and the balance water and is achieved by distillation and molecular sieve separation.

  The plant is expected to produce 144 MMlb/yr of ethanol by processing 447 MMlb/yr of dry bagasse. The capital cost is estimated to be $20.6 MM. Other costs include raw materials at $58.3 MM/yr and a utility cost of $25.8 MM/yr. Revenue from ethanol and byproducts totals $78 MM/yr. The net present value of the project is –$126 MM. However, the greenhouse gas emission from this process is estimated to be 0.571 kg CO2-eq/L of ethanol, less than the 0.584 kg CO2-eq/L of ethanol from conventional bioethanol production methods. Thus, sustainability is the main benefit of the novel process, and subsidies aimed to combat the global warming crisis by reducing greenhouse gas emissions could improve the economic viability of the project.

• CHE-7 Isopropyl Alcohol from Acetone

  Ariel Yeung, Yen La, Thuy Vo, Sim Shihmar
  Advisor: Dr. George Rowell

  Isopropanol (IPA) is an isomer of propyl alcohol, volatile, colorless liquid with a sharp musty odor like rubbing alcohol, which will be produced in Mobile, Alabama utilizing the nearby acetone and hydrogen plant which will be feeding the raw materials directly into the plant. The IPA plant is projected to produce 2% of total global production, which is 108 MMlb/year of IPA with weight 99.9% purity level. IPA is effective as a disinfectant and antiseptic used in various industries, especially with the high demand for sanitizing solutions during COVID-19. With the average IPA price of $2.09/lb, the plant will generate approximately $225 million per year.

  The process is built based on the US Patent by Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., as an effort to improve the production of isopropanol by the hydrogenation of acetone in the presence of Raney Cobalt catalyst. The single-pass conversion from acetone to IPA is 99.2% with catalyst loading of 2.7 MMlb/year and needs to be replaced in 12 months for catalyst purchased from Grace. The plant consists of three main units – CSTR reactor, flash drum, and distillation column – which allows the process to produce high purity products with little waste through acetone and hydrogen recycle streams. This has been optimized by changing the process from two reactors to one, and utilizing a safer catalyst, as opposed to Raney Nickel.

  The capital investment cost is around 4.5 million dollars, and the fixed cost is at 13.5 million dollars. For a 20-year plant life, the internal rate of return is 21.06%, which exceeds the hurdle rate at 15%. The economics feasibility study concludes that it is profitable to invest in this IPA production plant in Mobile, Alabama.

• CHE-8 Biosynthetic Palm Oil Production Facility

  Goldy Cubacub, Geoffrey Du, Mei Fang Wang, Brian Yee
  Advisor: Dr. Michael Kain

  Traditional palm oil production is an environmentally destructive process due to the resource demands associated with the crop cultivation. Palm plants require specific climate conditions to grow leading to deforestation of rainforests in tropical regions. This process explores manufacturing of a synthetic palm oil product produced through fermentation by yeast species L. starkeyi. Using the thin stillage waste stream from an adjacent ethanol fermentation facility as feedstock, this new plant seeks to reduce the environmental impact of palm cultivation and produces an oil product with a healthier lipid profile compared to existing consumer grade options. A new palm oil plant located in the Midwestern United States is designed with capacity to treat 484 million gallons of thin stillage per year, the waste produced by an average sized ethanol biofuel plant. This thin stillage waste stream composed primarily of water and organic compounds is purified and concentrated before being hydrolyzed by enzymes in the first reactor to convert polysaccharides into monomers for later fermentation. This hydrolyzed stillage is then fermented in the second reactor where palm oil fatty acids are produced and stored within the cell membranes of the yeast cells. The fermentation product stream undergoes sonication to rupture cells and release fatty acids into the liquid stream. Centrifugation and phase separation then isolate the palm oil compounds from the remaining material for packaging. Under 24/7 operation, this plant is expected to produce 10,734 lbs synthetic palm oil/year, an amount that would normally require 1.84 acres equivalence of deforestation for crop cultivation. Despite process optimizations, various reasons including reaction kinetics and commodity status of the product prevent the plant design from being economically feasible.

• CHE-9 Production of Acrylic Acid from Glycerol

  Hannah Sheibley, Noah Hecox, Zachary Hamilton, Mike Matteo
  Advisor: Dr. Steven Schon

  In this report, the feasibility of producing acrylic acid in Banten, Indonesia is studied. The process differs from the industry standard method in that it uses an organic feedstock of glycerol and water. The final design consists of two reactions, two separation sequences, storage tank facilities, and a waste handling facility. The first section of the process consists of dehydrating glycerol to acrolein with a zeolite Socony mobil-5 (ZSM-5) catalyst. This process consists of a fluidized bed reactor, absorption column, and an air stripping column, producing acrolein. The second part of the process consists of oxidizing the acrolein feed to produce acrylic acid with a molybdenum vanadium mixed oxide catalyst (MoVOx). This consists of a multitube packed bed reactor for the oxidation and an additional absorption column. The last section of the process involves refinement of the developed acrylic acid to its industry standard purity of 99.5 weight percent. This refinement uses two distillation columns and a liquid-liquid extraction column with a benzene solvent.

  The annual acrylic acid production rate of the plant is 342 MM lb/yr. This is 2.5% of the 2020 global acrylic acid market share and is projected to be 1.6% of the 2024 market share. An IRR of 18% is given by a 20-year plant life with a full plant life depreciation schedule. Taken into consideration is a 25% corporate tax rate in Indonesia, as well as fixed costs, variable costs, and a 3% inflation rate. With these considerations, the project is profitable with a payback period of 4.5 years if economic factors remain stable. A drop in the current price of glycerol by 30% and rise of acrylic acid selling prices by 13.3% increase the IRR of the project to reach the hurdle rate of 25% for new technologies. The current prices fall below this hurdle rate making the project unadvisable compared to the traditional acrylic acid production process.

• CHE-10 Agave Plant Advantages in Ethanol Production

  Long Tran, Melanie Huot, Noor Al-Nazal, Jorge Camacho
  Advisor: Dr. Richard Cairncross

  The production of fuel bioethanol is largely sourced from corn in the United States. In efforts to explore other feedstocks to diversify sourcing material, the production of ethanol from agave is modeled. Assuming a similar capacity to existing corn ethanol plants, a full capacity, industrial-scale plant is simulated, with a production rate of 653 million pounds of ethanol per year, requiring a yearly feedstock of 8 billion pounds of agave. Production will take place in the state of Texas, close to the US-Mexico border for the ease of agave shipment from Mexico.

  Sugars in the agave juice are extracted through roll mills, and the juice stream is then sterilized using pasteurization method High Temperature Short Time, HTST, before entering the batch fermentation system, where yeast and nutrients are added to convert sugars to ethanol for a batch time of 16 hours. After separating the waste biomass from the water and ethanol exiting the fermenters through a centrifuge, the water and ethanol are sent to a distillation system. The first column removes water from ethanol to a purity of 93 wt.% ethanol, which is headed to the second column, an azeotropic column with benzene as the entrainer, to reach a final purity of 99.41 wt.% ethanol. The total cost of manufacturing, including raw material, labor, and utility costs, is projected to be $470 million. The capital cost of equipment and installation is $22.9 million. The projected discounted cash flow rate of return, DCFROR, is -154.28%, whereas the discounted cumulative cash flow is -$368 million per year. The production results in a net loss yearly. Avenues of optimization include alternative entrainers from benzene, such as heptane, and the sale of bagasse for fuel use. A sensitivity study is conducted on the price of agave per ton to explore potential to improve profitability.

• CHE-11 Production of Ethylene Carbonate by Carbon Dioxide Sequestration

  Ryan Light, Jesse Efymow, Gabe Canzanese, Conlan McHugh
  Advisor: Mr. David Kolesar

  This novel process reacts captured sequestered stack gas carbon dioxide with ethylene oxide to produce ethylene carbonate. Ethylene carbonate is primarily used in lubricants and lithium-ion battery electrolyte solutions. The plant designed is projected to have a lifespan of 20 years and yield $379 million of product in net profit by the end of its lifespan. The entire project is predicted to require $14,324,330 in capital costs, $4,973,040 in yearly operation costs, and produce $65,550,000 per year of product. The location of the plant is Texas attached to or near an ethylene oxide plant, which helps streamline the acquisition process for both ethylene oxide and flue gas from which carbon dioxide is captured from.

• CHE-12 LDPE via a High-Pressure Tubular Reactor

  Joey Martini, Phillip Choi, Nicholas Yaidoo, Peter Hahm
  Advisor: Dr. Michael Grady

  This report is a financial assessment of the viability of a capital project aimed at producing 1,200 MM pounds of low-density polyethylene per annum. This volume represents 2.6% of the global annual production of this important commodity polymer. A process flowsheet with complete mass and energy balance based on an Aspen Polymer Plus flowsheet is presented. The process utilizes 4 plug flow reactors operating at 2000 bar with an ethylene recycle stream to generate product. The major pieces of equipment in the flowsheet are designed and sized including the reactors and the multi-stage compressors to bring ethylene to reactor pressure. Capital estimates of the major equipment are used in a factored project estimate as input to a full cash flow analysis. The total project capital was estimated at $1.3 Billion, total operating cost at $0.80/kg of product produced leading to a minimum selling price for the product at $4.90/kg to realize a 20% return on investment.

• CHE-14 Substitute Natural Gas from Coal

  Duy Bui, Thanh Pham, Kevin Radadia, Cameron Flanagan
  Advisor: Ed Andjeski

  The goal of this project is to create a method for producing substitute natural gas (SNG) from coal implementing one step methanation located in West Virginia. The lack of oxygen throughout all our plant reactors is the main difference between our theoretical process and the current design of coal gasification processes running today. Typically, after an oxygen rich gasification process occurs the reactor product needs to go through a water gas shift to prime the gasses for methanation. With the removal of oxygen, the water gas shift is not required. This strategy provides a long-term supply of domestic energy since SNG is ultra-clean burning, suitable for future technological uses, and a massive pipeline distribution system already exists in the United States. Since coal is a plentiful natural resource in the United States, it provides a long-term supply of abundant energy.

  All flows rates are on a basis of 10,000 lb/hr of coal input. Methyl Diethanolamine is our desulfurization catalyst while MCX-2R and PK-7R are our methanation catalysts. The product SNG after separations from carbon dioxide is expected to have 90.0% purity. The desulfurization catalyst will need to be replaced in full every 2 years and the methanation catalysts will need to be replaced every 5 years. The expected output of SNG is 76 million pounds per year. The upfront capital investment cost for equipment is $15,050,00 million and the installation costs are $5,310,100 million, bringing the total to $20,360,000 million. Assuming the plant operates for 20 years before stricter environmental restrictions and newer technology, the calculated rate of return is -15%. The SNG plant has a poor profitability index of 0.6, indicating that the plant should not be built.

• CHE-15 Process Manufacture: Production of Magnesium Carbonate from Wastewater Brine

  Alec Fagaly, Shreya Singh, Harshan Sivaraju
  Advisor: Dr. Aaron Fafarman

  There is a strong global push to both reduce carbon dioxide emissions and efficiently utilize concentrated wastewater produced by desalination plants. In this report, a plant is designed near the Mediterranean Sea, close to the Hedera desalination plant. Hedera incorporates wastewater brine from reverse osmosis plants and captures carbon dioxide from chemical plants to produce a monetizable product, magnesium carbonate. However, this plant produces a large amount of carbon dioxide during its operation, preventing the overall plant design from being carbon neutral.

  The plant consists of an evaporative concentrator, 4 crystallizers, 2 screw bed reactors, and a scrubber producing gypsum, Glauber’s salt, and sodium chloride, as by-products and magnesium carbonate. The aqueous hydrogen chloride produced in the plant is purified in a scrubber, recycled, and inputted into the evaporative concentrator.

  This plant produces 59,000 kg of magnesium carbonate annually and uses 35,000,000 kg of seawater and 85,000 kg of carbon dioxide. It also has an annual production of the following by-products: 22,600 kg of gypsum, 557,000 kg of sodium chloride and 25,500 kg of Glauber’s salt. The plant produces 1,275,000 kg of carbon dioxide annually, preventing the overall plant design from being carbon neutral.

  This plant produces its major revenue by using wastewater brine ($18.9 million per year) and selling sodium chloride ($6 million per year). The plant is projected to reach 100% operation in the fifth year of plant life and has a capital cost of $55.3 million and an annual cost of $18.4 million. The Net Present Value (NPV) is $8.1 million with a discounted cash flow rate of return (DCFROR) of 7.28%. Even though the NPV indicates a profit, as this DCFROR is not above the standard hurdle rate of 25% for the plant, this project at its current conditions is not considered economically feasible and hence, not a safe investment. However, considering the significant environmental benefits that this project yields, this project can still be pursued. If either the total capital cost decreases to about $10 million, the plant capacity of magnesium carbonate production increases to about 40 kg/hour, or the price per kilogram for one of the revenue-generating compounds changes, such as the selling price of magnesium carbonate increasing to $80 per kilogram, then this project can be feasible.

• CHE-16 Production of Caprolactam from Benzene

  Jianqiao Song, Pagnaa Attah Nantogmah, Jassa Sengha, Colin Brady
  Advisor: Dr. Steven Schon

  The goal of this project is to conceptualize a process plant in Jakarta, Indonesia with the aim of producing 50,000 US tons per year of the monomer to Nylon, ɛ-caprolactam. The motivation behind this project was to capture the emerging market for caprolactam in Asia and more specifically, Indonesia. The production begins from benzene and undergoes five reactions and one neutralization to achieve the final product.

  Numerous production pathways were considered. It was decided to use benzene as the feed material as opposed to intermediates such cyclohexane and cyclohexanone, due to benzene being readily available from refineries. The chosen process scheme involves the hydrogenation of benzene into cyclohexane, followed by the air oxidation of cyclohexane into cyclohexyl hydroperoxide (CHHP), the caustic decomposition of CHHP into cyclohexanone, the ammoximation of cyclohexanone into cyclohexanone oxime, and the acid-induced Beckmann rearrangement of the oxime into the neutralization to ɛ-caprolactam. A significant potential for improvement lies in finding a more efficient oxidation method, which currently requires four reactors and multiple separations.

  The project has an estimated total capital cost of $51,075,300, with yearly operating, raw material and utilities costs of $237,026,000, $182,934,000 and $32,827,200, respectively. With an estimated products sales of $201,593,000 per year, the Net Present Value (NPV) is $41.29MM and the DCFROR 250% after 20 years with a payback period of 8 years. It is not recommended to proceed with this project in its current state, as investment costs far exceed the NPV of the plant. However, the project has potential to be lucrative with further research and optimization.

• CHE-17 Solar Desalination and Power Production Using a Power Tower

  Chance Szabo, Ian Leap, Josh Shoulder, Duaa Saleh
  Advisor: Dr. Jason Baxter

  Green power and purified water will be produced at a power tower station located in Ecuador. Power tower stations are the greenest method of producing electricity and could prove to promise a brighter future for the world. Seawater will be pumped from approximately 9.94 mi away to the power tower set up nearby San Antonio, Ecuador. Power towers use concentrated solar energy to heat a molten salt that flows around the tower, acting as a heat transfer fluid. The concentrated solar energy is harnessed using a large field (around 1.2 million m2) of mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays up to a main receiver that the molten salt runs through. The molten salt runs through heat exchangers which allow it to pass by a stream with seawater. The seawater is heated and turned to steam. The steam is then superheated and sent to spin a turbine, allowing for electricity to be made. The steam is recondensed and treated for drinking. The leftover brine from the seawater is sent away for use by another plant. Ecuador has a demand for clean drinking water, as the country’s current tap water system is unsafe for consumption. Ecuador also has a reliable amount of sunlight that can be used by the power tower station that will be set up. This process is set to generate a gross amount of power 466,439,340 kWh, 267,109,920 lbs of salt, and 5,900,000,000 lbs of water per year. The main sources of revenue – in order from most revenue to least revenue – from this plant will be drinkable water, electricity, and sea salt. The respective revenue from each product over a ten-year period is as follows: drinkable water, $508,097,986, electricity, $50,427,499, sea salt, $7,024,991. The operating cost of the plant has a fixed cost per year of $15,509,188 and a variable cost per year of $71,700. The electricity and drinking water could greatly impact the people who live in Ecuador, given their hardships when it comes to water and electricity.

• CHE-18 Landfill Gas Clean-Up and Conversion to Dimethyl Ether

  Quader Moore-Robinson, Sam Shar, Kevin Huang, Inesse Hanna
  Advisor: Dr. George Rowell

  Dimethyl Ether (DME) is a sustainable fuel that can be produced using landfill gas (LFG). DME is considered an alternative to current fuel options, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, because it emits little to no greenhouse gases when burned. This chemical process aims to use the methane from the landfill emissions and convert it into fuel grade DME. The overall goal of this project will be a sustainability effort to reduce greenhouse emissions while creating an alternative energy source.

  The chosen plant site is Modern Landfill in York, PA. From the wellheads at this landfill, the LFG is pumped through a methane purification system to remove sulfides, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. This technology is outsourced to GAS RNG, a third-party company that specializes in LFG purification. The capital cost from design to installation is estimated at $55 million.

  The next step is to convert the methane into synthesis gas (syngas) using a fluid bed reactor with an FeTiO3 catalyst that also carries the oxygen needed for the reaction. This prevents any hazards associated with oxygen mixing. The effluent is separated using a cyclone where the spent catalyst can be sent to a regeneration unit so it can be used again.

  The syngas is then fed into a packed tubular reactor under high pressures to create methanol. This process uses a Cu/ZnO/Al catalyst. The effluent is separated using a tank separator and a flash column. Methanol is finally fed into the packed bed DME reactor. The effluent is purified for 98.5% of DME using two distillation columns. The optimized process uses a singular divided wall column with the effluent already separated.

  Using the methods described in the report, this plant can produce 6,485 lbs/hr of DME with an LFG flow rate of 7.219 mmscfd. With the current price for DME being $0.61 per kg, the process generates $15,216,369 per year.

  The total capital cost of this process is $88 million. The annual utility cost is approximately $3 million and operation cost is $4 million. With this in consideration, it is not economically feasible to create DME from LFG although it is a more sustainable process than allowing LFG to become greenhouse emission. This project would require substantial government subsidies to proceed.

• CHE-19 Production of Lithium from Lepidolite

  Josh Demboski, Alex Turano, Connor Kulczytzky, William Aniagoh
  Advisor: Dr. Maureen Tang

  The purpose of this process is to extract lithium from the ore lepidolite as an alternative to spodumene. As such, the process for extracting lithium from lepidolite draws from knowledge obtained and used in the processing of spodumene. Lithium is extracted from spodumene through what is known as the “traditional process,” where spodumene is roasted with sulfuric acid to extract it from the ore then converted into lithium carbonate as the final product. Initial lepidolite processes explored included sulfuric acid roasting in combination with vanadium pentoxide for flue gas recovery as well as roasting with the additives iron sulfide (FeS) and calcium oxide (CaO) to liberate sulfur trioxide and prevent the production of hazardous hydrogen fluoride as a byproduct respectively. The chosen process employs the use of CaO and FeS additives in roasting, a water leaching system, and the addition of an evaporator and carbonation step before precipitation to convert the initial lithium products (LiKSO4 and Li2SO4) into the more desirable and economical product lithium carbonate (LiCO3).

  The plant is grass roots and located in Sonora, Mexico due to proximity rail transportation and the largest known lithium project in the world. The plant aims to produce 1% of the world's total production of lithium or 1.12 MMlbs/yr. This is achieved by converting a feed of 87.41 MMlbs/yr lepidolite into 6.32 MMlbs/yr of lithium carbonate. The estimated cost of manufacturing with depreciation is $122 million. The raw material profit runs at a deficit of $33.4 million per year and the discounted NPV after 15 years of plant life is negative $528.62 million dollars. With the hurdle rate set at 12% and the rate of return at –99.43% the confident recommendation is that money is better spent elsewhere and that this plant should not be put into production until vast economic optimization occurs.