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INTRODUCTION
Due to the increase in the worlds population and most of it moving to urban cities, there is
increased demand for food, and this has resulted in the production of large amounts of
The by-products of agricultural activities are usually referred to as agricultural waste because
they are not the primary products. These wastes chiefly take the form of crop residues (residual
stalks, straw, leaves, roots, husks, shells etcetera) and animal waste (manure). Agricultural
wastes are widely available, renewable and virtually free, hence they can be an important
resource. They can be converted into heat, steam, charcoal, methanol, ethanol, bio diesel as
well as raw materials (animal feed, composting, energy and biogas construction and so on). A
production. Methanol is usually produced from natural gas, coal, petroleum oil, etc., however the
future direction of methanol production technology is in replacing fossil sources with renewable
energy sources and biomass has been considered within significant studies (Trop, Anicic and
Goricanec, 2014).
Methanol is promising renewable fuel that has lower carbon emissions compared to
conventional fuel reported that municipal, agricultural, and forestry waste, from the western US
could be utilized to produce methanol and that methanol could provide 1225% of the electricity
consumed in five states in the western US. The use of methanol could also reduce carbon
methanol supported fuel cells were used to generate electricity. (Kamarudin et al., 2013).
Methanol is produced from synthesis gas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen), itself derived from
the most common source. With the availability of fossil sources draining in the future, the
The overall objective of this plant design is to provide an alternative way of producing methanol
To the environment, underutilized agricultural waste will be used as the raw material for
the production of methanol to lessen the effect of decomposition of these waste in the
To the petrochemical industry, raw materials will be utilized as an alternative source for
RELATED LITERATURE
Kamarudin et al., (2013) conducted a study entitled Production of methanol from biomass
waste via pyrolysis. The production of methanol from agricultural, forestry, livestock, poultry,
and fishery waste via pyrolysis was investigated. Pyrolysis was conducted in a tube furnace at
450500 C. Sugarcane bagasse showed the methanol production (5.93 wt.%), followed by
roots and sawdust with 4.36 and 4.22 wt.%, respectively. Animal waste offered the lowest
content of methanol, as only 0.46, 0.80, and 0.61 wt.% were obtained from fishery, goat, and
cow waste, respectively. It was also observed that the percentage of methanol increased with
an increase in volatile compounds while the percentage of ethanol increased with the
percentage of ash and fix carbon. The data indicate that, pyrolysis is a means for production of
methanol and ethanol after further optimization of the process and sample treatment.
Trop, Anicic, and Goricanec, (2014) conducted a study entitled Production of methanol from
a mixture of torrefied biomass and coal. This paper investigated the influence of adding
torrefied biomass within an entrained flow coal gasifier for the production of methanol. Computer
simulations of gasifying a mixture of torrefied biomass and coal within an entrained flow gasifier,
synthesis gas purification, and methanol synthesis were carried out using the Aspen plus
program package. In addition, economic analyses are presented based on the net present
value. It was shown that, based on the predictions for future prices of the raw materials and
methanol, usage of a mixture of biomass and coal within entrained flow gasifiers would be
feasible and could become economically even better than the usage of coal only. The net
REFERENCES:
Kamarudin, S., Shamsul, N., Ghani, J., Chia, S., Liew, H. and Samsudin, A. (2013). Production
of methanol from biomass waste via pyrolysis. Bioresource Technology, 129, pp.463-468.
Trop, P., Anicic, B. and Goricanec, D. (2014). Production of methanol from a mixture of torrefied