Techno Economic Analysis of the Modified MixAlco Process

Chloe Simchick; Brooke Zidek; Devin Moder; Dustin Madson; Michael Payne; Jonathon Kelsey; Faisal Shaikh; Serdar Ozturk

LAPSE

Living Archive for Process Systems Engineering

LAPSE:2023.5686

Published Article

LAPSE:2023.5686

Techno Economic Analysis of the Modified MixAlco Process

Chloe Simchick, Brooke Zidek, Devin Moder, Dustin Madson, Michael Payne, Jonathon Kelsey, Faisal Shaikh, Serdar Ozturk

February 23, 2023

The MixAlco process is a patented biomass conversion technology used to produce valuable chemicals. The basis of this design relies on the use of fermentation, where acidophiles utilize their own enzymatic pathways to convert a variety of biomass, such as organic wastes, into carboxylic acid salts. Unlike previous MixAlco designs in which carboxylate salts are processed further into hydrocarbon fuels, this proposed design simulates the optimization and commercialization of mixed carboxylic acid salts as the final product. Sensitivity analyses identified four critical input factors of the base case process—biomass feed rate, selling price, distribution cost, and biomass composition. Increasing the biomass feed rate or population size has the most pronounced effect on process economics. Overall, the sensitivity analyses of all four critical input factors support that the new design is flexible in its ability to support populations of varying sizes, as well as different biomass feed rates and compositions.

Record ID

LAPSE:2023.5686

Keywords

carboxylate salts, MixAlco, municipal solid waste, plant design, sensitivity analysis, Technoeconomic Analysis

Subject

Process Design

Suggested Citation

Simchick C, Zidek B, Moder D, Madson D, Payne M, Kelsey J, Shaikh F, Ozturk S. Techno Economic Analysis of the Modified MixAlco Process. (2023). LAPSE:2023.5686

Author Affiliations

Simchick C: Biomolecular Engineering Program, Physics and Chemistry Department, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA [ORCID]
Zidek B: Biomolecular Engineering Program, Physics and Chemistry Department, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA
Moder D: Biomolecular Engineering Program, Physics and Chemistry Department, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA
Madson D: Biomolecular Engineering Program, Physics and Chemistry Department, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA [ORCID]
Payne M: Biomolecular Engineering Program, Physics and Chemistry Department, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA
Kelsey J: Biomolecular Engineering Program, Physics and Chemistry Department, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA
Shaikh F: Biomolecular Engineering Program, Physics and Chemistry Department, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA
Ozturk S: Biomolecular Engineering Program, Physics and Chemistry Department, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA

Journal Name

Processes

Volume

9

Issue

6

First Page

958

Year

2021

Publication Date

2021-05-28