Novel Design of an Integrated Pulp Mill Biorefinery for the Production of Biofuels for Transportation

An integrated gasification process was developed for an Ohio-based kraft pulp mill to produce liquid transportation fuels from biomass and coal. Black liquor byproduct from the pulp mill is co-gasified with coal to generate high quality syngas for further synthesis to dimethyl ether (DME) and/or Fischer-Tropsch fuels. A Texaco gasifier was chosen as the focal point for this design. Whenever possible, energy is recovered throughout to generate heat, steam, and power. Mass and energy balances were performed for individual process components and the entire design. An overall process efficiency of 49% and 53% was achieved for DME and FT-fuels, respectively....