PRODUCTION OF METHANOL FROM AGRICULTURAL WASTES

INTRODUCTION

Due to the increase in the worlds population and most of it moving to urban cities, there is

increased demand for food, and this has resulted in the production of large amounts of

agricultural wastes, both at farmer, municipality and city levels.

The by-products of agricultural activities are usually referred to as agricultural waste because

they are not the primary products. These wastes chiefly take the form of crop residues (residual

stalks, straw, leaves, roots, husks, shells etcetera) and animal waste (manure). Agricultural

wastes are widely available, renewable and virtually free, hence they can be an important

resource. They can be converted into heat, steam, charcoal, methanol, ethanol, bio diesel as

well as raw materials (animal feed, composting, energy and biogas construction and so on). A

significant number of studies exist regarding techno economic evaluations of methanol

production. Methanol is usually produced from natural gas, coal, petroleum oil, etc., however the

future direction of methanol production technology is in replacing fossil sources with renewable

energy sources and biomass has been considered within significant studies (Trop, Anicic and

Goricanec, 2014).

Methanol is promising renewable fuel that has lower carbon emissions compared to

conventional fuel reported that municipal, agricultural, and forestry waste, from the western US

could be utilized to produce methanol and that methanol could provide 1225% of the electricity

consumed in five states in the western US. The use of methanol could also reduce carbon

emissions by motor vehicles by up to 81% as well as up to 32% of carbon emissions, if

methanol supported fuel cells were used to generate electricity. (Kamarudin et al., 2013).

Methanol is produced from synthesis gas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen), itself derived from

oil, coal or, increasingly, biomass.

Today, most of the methanol is produced from natural gas. The exception is China where coal is

the most common source. With the availability of fossil sources draining in the future, the

possibility of methanol production from biomass is good.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The overall objective of this plant design is to provide an alternative way of producing methanol

using agricultural wastes.

To the environment, underutilized agricultural waste will be used as the raw material for

the production of methanol to lessen the effect of decomposition of these waste in the

greenhouse gas emission.

To the petrochemical industry, raw materials will be utilized as an alternative source for

biomethanol production as a feedstock for petrochemical products.

RELATED LITERATURE

Kamarudin et al., (2013) conducted a study entitled Production of methanol from biomass

waste via pyrolysis. The production of methanol from agricultural, forestry, livestock, poultry,

and fishery waste via pyrolysis was investigated. Pyrolysis was conducted in a tube furnace at

450500 C. Sugarcane bagasse showed the methanol production (5.93 wt.%), followed by

roots and sawdust with 4.36 and 4.22 wt.%, respectively. Animal waste offered the lowest

content of methanol, as only 0.46, 0.80, and 0.61 wt.% were obtained from fishery, goat, and

cow waste, respectively. It was also observed that the percentage of methanol increased with

an increase in volatile compounds while the percentage of ethanol increased with the

percentage of ash and fix carbon. The data indicate that, pyrolysis is a means for production of

methanol and ethanol after further optimization of the process and sample treatment.
Trop, Anicic, and Goricanec, (2014) conducted a study entitled Production of methanol from

a mixture of torrefied biomass and coal. This paper investigated the influence of adding

torrefied biomass within an entrained flow coal gasifier for the production of methanol. Computer

simulations of gasifying a mixture of torrefied biomass and coal within an entrained flow gasifier,

synthesis gas purification, and methanol synthesis were carried out using the Aspen plus

program package. In addition, economic analyses are presented based on the net present

value. It was shown that, based on the predictions for future prices of the raw materials and

methanol, usage of a mixture of biomass and coal within entrained flow gasifiers would be

feasible and could become economically even better than the usage of coal only. The net

emissions of CO2 would also be significantly lowered.

REFERENCES:

Kamarudin, S., Shamsul, N., Ghani, J., Chia, S., Liew, H. and Samsudin, A. (2013). Production

of methanol from biomass waste via pyrolysis. Bioresource Technology, 129, pp.463-468.

Trop, P., Anicic, B. and Goricanec, D. (2014). Production of methanol from a mixture of torrefied

biomass and coal. Energy, 77, pp.125-132.