Techno-economic analysis of Di-butyl ketone, Di-methyl furan and Hydroxymethyl furfural production from biomass based resources

The issues associated with the use of petroleum have led to the development of new processes for the production of industrial chemicals from biomass resources. Thus, a sustainable supply of industrial chemicals can be made available through use of biobased sources. Techno-economic assessment of such processes in conjunction with lab scale development is essential to analyze feasibility and identify key areas for further development. We analyze here a process for production of 5-nonanone (dibutyl ketone, DBK) from levulinic acid (LA) which is a biobased platform chemical that is produced in large quantities from a variety of lignocellulosic biomass sources. The economic analysis herein described is based on a catalytic pathway developed in lab scale. The final product (DBK) has applications as an industrial solvent and serves as a platform chemical for the production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels in the diesel and gasoline ranges. A detailed process model has been created using Aspen for two different product purity levels (90 and 99 %). Process economics have been studied in a discounted cash flow analysis to analyze the viability of production and relative product purification costs. Sensitivity analysis is used to identify the impact of key parameters on the minimum selling price of product. The modeled process utilizes 480 MT/day of LA feedstock to produce 194 MT/day of 5-nonanone along with other byproducts. Two models, involving the production of 5-nonanone at two different purity