Sustainability Analysis of an Urea-Bioethanol Production Plant using Renewable Resources

The global installed capacity of nitrogen-based fertilizers is about 190 million tons and is projected to grow by about 6 per cent by 2027. Approximately half of the world’s population relies on these fertilizers to produce food. At present, the production of urea relies on natural gas that corresponds to approximately 1-2% of the annual energy supply worldwide. It also results in considerable greenhouse gas emissions. As the cost of urea is heavily influenced by the price of natural gas, geopolitical events have a crucial bearing on the economic performance of urea production. The price of urea changed significantly in the past three years, reaching a maximum of 925 USD/MT in April 2022 due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Developing an alternate green process for urea and assessing their techno-economic and environmental feasibility is a challenge. The goal of this project is to create a conceptual design of a green urea plant that is integrated to a bioethanol biorefinery using renewable lignocellulosic biomass as the main feedstock and use the fermentation carbon dioxide as feedstock for urea production. This will lead to a sustainable system from an economic and environmental point of view.

Faculty Supervisor:

Sudip Rakshit

Student:

Partner:

Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

Lakehead University

Program: