Process Systems Engineering for Biofuels Development

12Intensified Purification Alternative for Methyl Ethyl Ketone Production: Economic, Environmental, Safety and Control Issues

Eduardo Sánchez‐Ramírez¹, Juan José Quiroz‐Ramírez², and Juan Gabriel Segovia‐Hernández¹

¹ Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Universidad de Guanajuato, Noria Alta s/n, Guanajuato, Guanajuato, 36050, México

² CONACyT – CIATEC A.C. Centro de Innovación Aplicada en Tecnologías Competitivas, 37545, León, Guanajuato México

12.1 Introduction

Currently, the environmental disturbances due to global climate change lead to irreversible damage and transformation of nature/ecosystems (Stocker et al. 2013). Many political agreements have been proposed to limit this continuous disturbance. For example, The Paris Agreement (COP 21, 2015) aims to keep the global temperature rise below 2 °C until the end of the twenty‐first century. However, to achieve this commitment, less than 2900 Gt of CO₂ should be emitted in this period with 1900 Gt already having been emitted (Stocker et al. 2013).

On a global scale, the amount of energy consumed by the transportation sector is second highest (29% in 2015) after that consumed by the industry sector (Figure 12.1); besides, this energy requirement is almost exclusively based on fossil fuels (95.8% in 2015). In order to achieve the target, two alternatives are forecast: diminished consumption and alternative fuels. The energy consumption could be reduced by increasing technological efficiency, for example, reduced car weight and ...