Diseño de una planta de producción de propileno a partir de la fracción orgánica de los residuos sólidos urbanos

Abstract

This project aims to design a propylene production plant from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW) in order to provide an alternative to reduce the increasing propylene importation in Ecuador and to reduce the negative environmental impact associated to MSW and moreover, seize the waste currently discarded. Initially, a proximal analysis of the residues was carried out. The moisture content of the MSW was 78,10 %, the ash content was 9,71 % and the calorific value was 19,60 MJ kg-1. These parameters were necessary to elaborate both mass and energy balances and to design the main equipment of the production plant. The determined capacity of the plant was 1 340 kg h-1 of MSW. The main unit operations such as: gasification, CO2 absorption, Fischer-Tropsch reaction, product separation and CO2 desorption, were established. The design, mass balances and energy balances of the main equipment were obtained through simulations performed on MATLAB software. The economic prefeasibility study showed that the net present value (NPV) is 12 050 996,78 USD and the internal return rate (IRR) is 84, 83 %. These values indicated that the proposed production plant is economically feasible.