Chemie Ingenieur Technik最新文献

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One of the highlights of DECHEMA Forum 2024 has been discussions about who is going to be first in transforming towards more sustainability, the politics or the industry. This contribution about the demonstration plant BioCampus MultiPilot (BMP) in Straubing shows one of the steps the regional Bavarian public sector makes in supporting industrial biotechnology. Being public infrastructure BMP will provide food-grade facilities, state-of-the-art equipment, ready-to-use utilities, and process development services for development, demonstration, and scale-up of bioprocesses. Some of the features of the main apparatuses like 5-m³ biomass digestion reactor, 20-L up to 25-m³ bioreactors as well as solid-liquid separators, multipurpose vessels, falling film evaporator, and spray dryer are given.

Decarbonizing transportation, especially aviation, shipping, and trucking, is challenging. E-fuels offer a solution by using renewable electricity to produce carbon-neutral fuels compatible with current engines and infrastructure. Created from hydrogen via electrolysis and CO₂ from the atmosphere or industrial processes, e-fuels mimic conventional fuels, allowing use without major modifications. Key processes include hydrogen generation, CO₂ capture, and synthesis. This study consolidates knowledge, addresses research gaps, and aims to stimulate innovation.

With the revision of the EU urban wastewater directive, higher requirements regarding the quality of the effluent of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were defined. To meet these standards, existing WWTPs must be modernized with additional treatment processes. Within the research project „HyFive”¹⁾ an innovative process combining a membrane bioreactor (MBR) and downstream ozonation is developed to eliminate organic micropollutants (OMPs) while increasing plant capacity. The objective is to assess the feasibility of the process based on its treatment performance and the ecotoxicological impacts when treating MBR filtrate with ozone. So far derived results indicate that when applying smaller ozone concentrations, 80 % of selected OMPs can be eliminated. Furthermore, ecotoxicological investigations demonstrated that the effluent of the downstream ozonation step poses no risk to receiving water bodies.

A high-temperature reactor concept using electrically heated oxide ceramic tubes is investigated with the aim of replacing fossil fuels with renewable electricity and reducing CO₂ emissions in the chemical industry. The multilayer ceramic composite tubes are resistant to thermal stress and consist of an inner monolithic oxide ceramic, a thin metallic heating element, and an outer Al₂O₃/Al₂O₃ ceramic matrix composite (OCMC) layer. Dry reforming of methane was tested up to 1150 °C, with and without catalyst. Due to the non-gas-tight OCMC layer, process conditions had to be adjusted to prevent soot formation on the heater. A tube-in-tube design allows for heat recovery and reduces the outlet temperatures. Conversion rates of up to 80 % have been achieved, but temperature drops due to the endothermic reaction can lead to secondary soot forming conditions.

As one of the main contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, the reduction of emissions in chemical industry is indispensable. The production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources using water electrolysis can contribute to this goal. However, the dynamic character of renewable energy sources leads to major challenges regarding the dynamic operation of the production process. Here, a model of a modular low-temperature electrolyzer plant is presented. The effect of available time resolution of the source electricity as well as the impact of the integration time step is studied. With the presented model the positive effect of load-dependent operation of modular electrolyzer plants with fluctuating availability of source electricity on the total hydrogen output is demonstrated.

The need for improved resilience, increased efficiency in production chains, and the need to raise resource efficiency require more cross-company information exchange. Data spaces are digital ecosystems, in which companies host their own information within their systems and thus retain sovereignty over the data and its access. The Manufacturing-X initiative is an industrial policy initiative to develop such a data space; in that context, Process-X deals with the process industry. Within the Process-X initiative, a showcase was developed. An exchange of regular steam forecasts enables the energy supplier to adjust the level of confidence to the forecast consumption and thus save primary energy in generation.

Modularization of chemical plants has gained recently importance due to its flexibility and shorter time-to-market. This is explored for stirred-tank reactors (STRs) in the ENPRO initiative REUNION. A modular DN15 extraction cell, used as a highly automated continuous STR (CSTR), represents a reactor cascade and utilizes saponification reactions for performance assessment. Depending on the reactant ratio, the reaction occurs as a single-phase (second-order) or two-phase (first-order) process. The service design of modules is outlined and compared for different intentions and their application.

In order to reduce the use and combustion of fossil raw materials, increasing reliance must be placed on renewable energies. Many strategies are currently being researched to enable the use of electrical energy from renewable resources for chemical synthesis [1, 2]. This contribution shows the possibility of obtaining basic chemicals by conversion using microwave plasma technology. A challenge for renewable energies, in addition to the storage problem, is the dependence on weather conditions. The plasma technology approach provides excellent flexibility in controlling of the process and thus in utilizing the fluctuating availability of cost-effective renewable energies. This enables efficient and on-demand operation.

This techno-economic analysis examines the impact of CO₂ capture energy and capital costs on plasma-based power-to-liquid (PtL) systems, identifying strategies to minimize the net production costs (NPC) for synthetic fuels. Three future development scenarios were defined. One, focusing on high efficiencies, reaches NPC of 2.9 EUR L⁻¹ of marine diesel. The approach of prioritizing high CO₂ conversion results in costs of 3.7 EUR L⁻¹. A more balanced approach between efficiency and conversion achieves an NPC of 2.6 EUR L⁻¹. Further NPC reductions are possible by sourcing lower-cost renewable electricity, reducing the NPC further to a minimum of 1.6 EUR L⁻¹. These findings underscore that direct air capture (DAC) cost-efficiency and process integration improvements are essential for scalable, economically viable CO₂ utilization in PtL processes.