Date of Award:

5-2015

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Jason C. Quinn

Committee

Jason C. Quinn

Committee

Lance C. Seefeldt

Committee

Christine Hailey

Abstract

Delactosed whey permeate (delac) is a low valued by-product in the dairy industry with 90 million tons annually disposed of worldwide. Upgrading delac to bioproducts, specifically biofuel, has been demonstrated at laboratory scale through yeast fermentation. However, the large-scale environmental impact and economic feasibility of this process is yet to be quantified. Further research, focused on evaluating the sustainability, scalability and economic feasibility of the fermentation pathway, directs research and development to move the technology towards commercialization. The enclosed research incorporates biological experimentation with engineering systems modeling to evaluate the large-scale environmental impacts and economic feasibility of generating bioproducts from delac. Systems engineering process models were developed concurrently with biological experimentation. Integrating process models, validated with experimental results, enabled realistic life cycle and techno-economic assessments of various large-scale conversion pathways. Tradeoffs between environmental impact and economic feasibility are leveraged to direct research towards the most commercially feasible pathway for the conversion of delac to bioproducts. Results show a minimum fuel selling point of $4.56 per gasoline gallon equivalent, a net energy ration, defined as energy required to process biofuel divided by energy in the biofuel produced, of 0.81 and greenhouse gas emissions of 30.03 g CO2-eq MJ-1. Discussion focuses on optimization of the process, in terms of techno-economic and life cycle assessments, presented by a sensitivity analysis that highlights areas for directed research to improve commercial feasibility.

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