Análise da viabilidade técnica da brodução de BTX (Benzeno, Tolueno e Xileno) por meio da simulação do processo de pirólise catalítica rápida de biomassa

Abstract

In search of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) in order to stop the global warming and the consequently climate change on planet, it has been necessary to develop industrial chemical process to replace non-renewable feedstocks by renewable ones. Among the common chemicals obtained through oil, the BTX mixture (Benzene, Toluene and Xylene) attracts market interests, creating different studies of green processes (renewables) to produce the mixture. In this context, the catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of biomass, that is the rapid heating of lignocellulosic compounds in the presence of a catalyst, has demonstrated, on a laboratory scale, a promising process for the production of BTX. However, there are no simulation studies of this process so far. Thus, the objective of this work is to verify the technical feasibility of producing BTX using biomass as raw material by simulating this process in the Aspen plus software. Enough data were found in the literature and allowed the calculation of the stoichiometry of the process to be inserted in the simulator in order to produce 20.5 mg of benzene, 39.5 mg of toluene and 22.92 mg of xylene per gram of cellulose. But, due to the large amount of chemicals generated, the reactor effluent was purified through a process synthesized through the heuristic method. As a main result, a proposal for a technically viable chemical process was obtained for the production and purification of BTX through fast catalytic pyrolysis of cellulose. This process allowed the recovery of 61% of the benzene produced, 85% of the toluene and 92% of the xylene.