Departments - Online Exclusive
BioGasol Uses Pro/ENGINEER to Design Equipment for Alternative Fuel Sources
9/25/2009
Innovative alternative energy company turns to PTC to develop core technology for bioethanol production.
BioGasol ApS, Ballerup, Denmark
BioGasol develops and designs process technologies for the production of second-generation bioethanol, sometimes called cellulosic ethanol. This promising source of renewable energy is based on new technology being developed to derive sugars out of plant-based biowaste rather than from food crops, and then ferment these sugars into ethanol.
The Challenge: Effectively Produce Bioethanol as an Alternative Fuel Source
Biofuels, and in particular bioethanol, have gained increased interest recently as alternative fuel sources. Bioethanol is considered one of the most promising replacements of gasoline, with the goal of both reducing dependency on oil and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. To produce bioethanol, BioGasol needed to design an efficient pre-treatment and fermentation system for processing the raw material that would eventually become the final product.
The Solution: Pro/ENGINEER to Design Key Elements of System
BioGasol chose Pro/ENGINEER, the 3D product design solution from PTC, to design the various components of the processing plant. Pre-treatment and fermentation units were modeled in Pro/ENGINEER as part of a demonstration plant for this new technology. The resulting “green refinery” also had to have the ability to scale in size.
The Result: Early Plan Shows Proof-of-Concept and Scalability for Mass Production
While BioGasol believes mass production of second-generation bioethanol is approximately two years away, the company has already developed the complex assemblies that show proofof- concept for their design. By using Pro/ENGINEER models, manufacturing partners will eventually be able to scale the design from a small demonstration model to a full-size production version, fully able to process more than 24,000 pounds of raw material–or biomass–per hour.
Creating Clean Fuel From a Tiny Organism in Iceland
BioGasol was established as a company in 2006 as a spin-out of research being done at the Technical University of Denmark. This research focused on the activity of an Icelandic microorganism found almost two decades ago, which has the ability to convert what are known as pentose sugars, or C5 sugars, into ethanol. These C5 sugars are not easily accessible, yet the microorganism seemed to hold the secret to making them more readily available. Rune Skovgaard-Petersen, Engineering Manager at BioGasol, has been with the company since 2007. He explains how ethanol is created from this tiny organism: “Basically, what would happen in Iceland was that a leaf would fall into a thermal spring, and then these microorganisms would eat the leaf and spit out ethanol.”
The Technical University researchers realized they could make minor genetic modifications to the microorganism, so that it didn’t make any inhibitors for the process. With this research at its core, BioGasol became one of the few projects around the world creating bioethanol from C5 sugars.
Bioethanol is a clear, colorless, flammable, oxygenated hydrocarbon that can be used as a transport fuel. Up to 5% bioethanol can be included in gasoline and used by any car running on unleaded gas. Some specially adapted cars, known as FlexiFuel vehicles, can run on 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.
Unlocking the secret of second-generation bioethanol–known as cellulosic ethanol in the U.S. – is significant because it costs less to produce, does not rely on food crops as an energy source, and produces even less greenhouse gas than first-generation bioethanol. Conventional bioethanol production from starch-rich crops, such as corn, grain or sugar cane, is well established, and the industry is growing throughout the world. However, the new process being developed by BioGasol uses the cellulosic elements, or the basic building blocks of the plant. This means that instead of using the wheat grain, it is now possible to make bioethanol from the straw part of the plant. By using agricultural residues, wood, or energy crops–collectively known as biomass–the production of second-generation bioethanol is a more promising process for the environment.
“ If I were to put one key word to it, it would be ‘innovation’, because Pro/ENGINEER is an innovation tool. But ‘collaboration’ would also come to mind, in that Pro/ENGINEER is an excellent tool to use in innovative, cross-functional teamwork.”
– Rune Skovgaard-Petersen, Engineering Manager, BioGasol
Harnessing the Potential of Bioethanol
“In order to enter into this cellulosic ethanol business, you need to have different technologies,” explains Skovgaard-Petersen. “The first step requires what we call a pre-treatment. It’s basically a wet oxidation, and we have designed some equipment based on the research and solutions that we have found. One of the next steps in the process is to convert these C5 sugars into ethanol, using fermentation. And for that, we need a fermentation reactor. We’re working with Pro/ENGINEER from PTC for developing this kind of equipment.”
BioGasol is a small, still evolving company with 22 employees in Denmark and three people working in Washington State in the U.S. BioGasol works closely with an American company called Pacific Ethanol that operates five first-generation, or starch-based, plants.
In 2007, BioGasol, together with Pacific Ethanol (Sacramento, CA), won a U.S. Department of Energy grant for $24.3 million to build and operate a demonstration plant to be based on BioGasol technology and located at Boardman, Oregon. In addition, BioGasol won a $5 million grant to develop and mature the technology. And, in 2009, BioGasol was awarded a $15.5 million grant for building a demonstration test facility in Denmark.
As the company continues growing and expanding its reach, BioGasol’s innovative technology is being recognized more and more worldwide. In early 2009, they received the prestigious
Red Herring award for being one of the most innovative companies in the world. “BioGasol is an innovative company; we have done the research, and now we’re trying to bring the results of this research out to the emerging market,” says Skovgaard-Petersen. “We’re working with Pro/ENGINEER as a development tool to guide us in our innovation phase.” Design Engineer Torben Pedersen working with Pro/ENGINEER–designing a valve solution for a pilot scale test pre-treatment.
Developing Ideas with Pro/ENGINEER
“At BioGasol, we started out using Pro/ENGINEER as a design tool to facilitate innovation for the C5 fermentation (Pentose or Xylose fermentation) systems,” explains Skovgaard-Petersen. “We began by having brainstorming sessions and doing the rough sketches, then we used Pro/ENGINEER to draft up ideas and see how it works and how it all fits together. Recently, the design process has taken a form of being more product-oriented and having a product structure and assembly structure. So, it’s kind of evolved from the creative phase into a more manufacturing- oriented phase,” states Skovgaard-Petersen.
The company believes it will likely take another two to three years before the first commercially driven plants are in operation. In the meantime, BioGasol must take quite a few small steps in order to prove the technology.
As the company’s Engineering Manager, Skovgaard-Petersen chose Pro/ENGINEER because it was the best solution for the company’s purposes; he also had past experience with the design tool. Some of his criteria were that the 3D product design solution they chose needed to handle both larger assemblies and complex assemblies. Another requirement was that it needed to have a fairly strict way of structuring the products, not only in terms of product architecture, but also in having full control, with no uncertainties.
“We evaluated others, including CATIA®, Inventor®, SolidWorks® and Solid Edge®,” Skovgaard- Petersen comments, “but I was quite confident that Pro/ENGINEER could do the job. It offered a lot of possibilities in terms of getting creative work done, and also fulfilled our product goals. That, along with the affordable pricing, is why we chose Pro/ENGINEER.”
Emerging Market: Energy Companies Seeking Fuel Alternatives
With the ongoing depletion of natural resources worldwide, and the continuing rise in fuel costs, energy giants such as Chevron, BP and Shell are looking at alternative fuel sources as they plan for the future. Companies already in the alternative energy space, such as Abengoa, POET Energy, and Pacific Ethanol, are exploring the promise of second-generation bioethanol. Consequently, both traditional and newer-energy companies may have an interest in working closely with BioGasol.
The next challenge for BioGasol is to commercialize its innovative products. Going forward, the company will be taking their concepts and plans, and scaling them to first create a demonstration plant, and then, working with manufacturing partners, to create full-scale production systems that can process more than 100,000 pounds of biomass per hour. In December, 2007, BioGasol was awarded a Danish government grant to build the first demonstration plant for second-generation bioethanol in Denmark. This plant is designed for feedstock flexibility, demonstrating conversion of agricultural residues, such as wood chips and garden waste, in addition to wheat and barley straw, energy crops and grass clippings from roadsides. The new plant will be energy self-sufficient, and all process water will be reused. A Danish company called BornBioFuel, on the island of Bornholm, will begin ethanol production during 2009, proving that BioGasol’s system for converting C5 sugars into bioethanol is feasible.
Scaling Up by Using Top-Down Design in Pro/ENGINEER
The next step is to take the Bornholm demonstration plant, which can process 8,000 pounds of biomass per hour, and scale it to larger systems that eventually can handle 24,000 pounds per hour or more, for commercially viable, full-scale units. Skovgaard-Petersen comments, “In our world, everything has to be modularized. Because of the modular approach and top-down assembly with Pro/ENGINEER, we have control over these subassemblies. This lets us have the confidence that we can quickly scale up to the next level of equipment that we need to implement. And, we know that, because of the parametric way that Pro/ENGINEER works, it is something that can be achieved quite easily.”
BioGasol’s expertise in the areas of biotechnology and engineering are positioning the company for future success in the field of renewable energy. With its proprietary technologies for pre-treatment and biogas production, and its unique C5 fermentation process, the company has harnessed the power of Pro/ENGINEER to design a solution for maximum ethanol production with more than 90% utilization of the energy potential in the biomass, and more than 90% CO2 displacement.
Skovgaard-Petersen concludes, “Potential solutions to the energy problem need to be explored. I don’t think there is just one technology that will prevail; I think there will be enough room for a lot of different energy technologies in the future, and I believe ethanol is sure to be one of them.”
Above Photo: Artist’s rendering of a large-scale, commercial bioethanol production plant.
http://www.ptc.com