Design Of A Heat Recovery System For Bio-Oil Upgradation

Biofuels are the next generation source of alternative energy; hence research that might lead to the advancement of this type of fuels could propel us into the future. The research done in this project is directly related to harnessing the power of biofuels for an environmentally friendly source of energy. Research suggests that bio-oil conversion to lighter hydrocarbons (i.e. gasoline) has proven to be relatively challenging, therefore a study is done through this project to qualitatively evaluate different heat recovery systems using a rating table, and design the most suitable heat recovery system that could come with a system that efficiently converts bio-oil to lighter hydrocarbons. The project focuses on the design of a heat exchanger that will cool a mixture comprising of Hydrogen and Hydrocarbons, condense the Hydrocarbons and reheat the separated Hydrogen. This heat exchanger has to handle high Temperatures and Pressures due to the reaction conditions being at high pressures and temperatures. The design is based on the relative compositions of hydrogen and hydrocarbons contained in the mixture. Therefore the project explores the prospects of Bio-oil upgrading through the design of an efficient heat recovery system.