The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	A comparison of anhydrous ethanol production from ethylene and from corn utilizing life cycle analysis methodology
Author:	Morse, Gregory
View Online:	njit-etd1995-098 (viii, 74 pages ~ 2.4 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Environmental Science
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Chemical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Petrides, Demetri P. (Committee chair) Farrauto, Robert J. (Committee member) Tomkins, R. P. T. (Committee member)
Date:	1995-05
Keywords:	Ethylene. Anhydrous ethanol. Product life cycle--Environmental aspects.
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	There is currently much concern with the impact on the environment due to industrial processes. One method to assess this impact is to perform a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) on the process. Life Cycle Analysis is made up of three stages; Life Cycle Inventory Analysis, Life Cycle Impact Assessment, and Life Cycle Improvement Assessment. In this study, Life Cycle Inventory Analysis methodology was applied to two industrial processes for producing anhydrous ethanol. The first process is the fermentation of corn, and the second is the hydration of ethylene using water and a catalyst. Each process was first modeled using the BioPro Designer, a process simulator, to generate the material and energy balances associated with each process. The result of the Life Cycle Inventory Analysis on each process was an eco-vector which contained all material inputs, energy inputs, and emissions associated with each step of each of the processes.