Carolina Conde-Mejía

Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco | UJAT · División Académica de Ingeniería y Arquitectura

Designs of extractive distillation systems for ethanol-water separation using ionic liquids as entrainers are presented. Distillation sequences that integrate the extractive column with five options for ionic liquid recovery were designed. Two types of ionic liquids, namely, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride [BMIM](Cl)] and 1-ethyl-3-methylimida...

The location of process equipment is an important issue for the industry. Poor distribution directly affects the safety and economy of the process. In this work, a multi-objective optimization is proposed to optimize the distribution of the layout, minimizing the annual cost and the risk of a domino effect. The optimization model minimizes the domi...

BACKGROUND In the past, process safety has improved safety issues in chemical plants; today, it is essential to consider safety aspects in any process plant. Furthermore, the production of value‐added products through biotechnological methods has increased, and safety is usually not considered in this kind of process design. The biotechnological pr...

Energy integration is a tool which allows reducing the heating and cooling requirements for production processes. This is particularly important in the processes for production of biofuels, since such processes are expected to have low environmental impact, which can be achieved by reducing the need for steam and cooling water. It is common to perf...

In some fermentation systems, whey components (lactose, proteins and minerals) can produce isopentyl acetate (IA). An analysis of the best conditions for IA production with Kluyveromyces marxianus was developed in this work. The experiment design was two-factor and three-level design based on a response surface methodology (RSM) using Design-Expert...

On April 20th, 2016, an explosion occurred in the “Pajaritos” petrochemical plant, in Coatzacoalcos, México. The accident caused 32 deaths and almost 100 workers were seriously injured. At present, there is no official information about the cause of the accident and the existent reports are confidential. This paper proposes an explanation of what h...

The present work aimed to design a separation process for 2-phenylethanol (2-PEA) produced by whey fermentation and to evaluate its economic potential. The separation sequence consisted of a liquid–liquid extraction column followed by two distillation columns for 2-PEA purification and solvent recovery. In addition, the use of ethyl acetate as a so...

This paper presents a new approach, defined as hazard process stream index (HPSI). This index intends to improve hazard identification in the early stages of a process design project. The main objective was to intensify biofuels and bioproducts’ production processes, which involve handling flammable aqueous mixtures and combustible materials. The i...

La presencia de metales pesados e ingredientes farmacéuticos activos en los sistemas de riego con aguas residuales es un problema preocupante. Por otro parte, el uso de microalgas ha demostrado ser una alternativa sustentable potencial para estos casos. Este trabajo presenta un análisis de la potencial biorremediación de aguas residuales utilizando...

After the biomass pretreatment and fermentation processes, the purification step constitutes a major task in bioethanol production processes. The use of membranes provides an interesting choice to achieve high-purity bioethanol. Membrane separation processes are generally characterized by low energy requirements, but a high capital investment. Some...

Dairy products are now part of many people's diets. In 2017 global production was 700 million tons of milk, which are marketed in the form of liquid milk (54%), yogurt and fermented milk (16%), cheese (7%) and other products. The regions of the world with the highest production are Asia (30%), the European Union (28%) and North and Central America...

Whey is a byproduct of the cheese industry, which is potentially dangerous for the environment if it is not treated before its discharge. An alternative use for whey is as raw material to produce compounds with high added value as 2-phenylethanol (2-PE). Experimental production of 2-PE from whey using Kluyveromices marxianus as inoculum was evaluat...

Objective: Third generation biorefineries based on microalgae biomass seem to be a great potential to supply future fuel consumption. However, technological challenges must be faced; such as microalgae harvesting, which is one of the most important bottlenecks. Several technics have been proposed to harvest microalgae such as centrifugation, flotat...

Biodiesel and bioethanol are among the most studied biofuels. For the production of biodiesel, the use of supercritical alcohols has been reported as an alternative with some advantages over the traditional base-catalyzed processes. Nevertheless, due to the high pressure and temperature conditions under which the supercritical process operates, the...

In this work, a process for the production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic materials is proposed and analyzed using the process simulator Aspen Plus. The stream leaving the reactive section, which has a bioethanol composition of around 5.7 wt%, enters to a stripping column where water and by-products are separated from ethanol. From that column,...

Resumen México trata menos del 50% de las aguas residuales producidas. Las tecnologías actuales fueron creadas en una época donde el consumo energético era de poca importancia, por ello es necesario la búsqueda de nuevas alternativas que sean más amigables con el medio ambiente. En este sentido, una tecnología emergente con alto potencial de aplica...

Biorefinery implementation became a reality with the so-called first-generation biorefineries (FGB), mainly for the production of bioethanol and biodiesel. This chapter illustrates how the hierarchical approach can provide an excellent tool for the selection of processing routes in biorefinery facilities. The overall strategy for the hierarchical p...

The bioethanol production from lignocellulosic materials is a socially and environmentally well-accepted option; however, its technical and economic feasibility needs to be established. In order to know if the bioethanol production from this feedstock has a potential for implementation, we developed a comparison of 16 process configurations based o...

Lignocellulosic materials, which consist mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, are among the most promising renewable feedstocks for the production of energy and chemicals. Bioethanol is a major biofuel that can be produced from lignocellulosic materials. Its production typically involves a hydrolysis-fermentation route, which has three ma...