Simulation of a biorefinery process from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste generated in Mexico City

BACKGROUND In this work, a biorefinery process was designed and simulated in Aspen Plus® V.10 for production of biogas, bioethanol, and biofertilizer from the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) generated in Mexico City (CDMX). The process consists of five stages: (i) anaerobic digestion, (ii) acid hydrolysis, (iii) simultaneous saccharification and co‐fermentation, (iv) conventional distillation, and (v) dehydration by extractive distillation. Stirred tank and stoichiometric reactors were used for the anaerobic biodigester simulation, while stoichiometric reactors were employed for simulation of the acid hydrolysis, and simultaneous saccharification and co‐fermentation. RESULTS The overall results of the simulated process show that it is possible to obtain 149.6 Tons of Biogas, 41.9 Tons of Biofertilizer and 19.7 Tons of Bioethanol from 1000 Tons of OFMSW processed daily, which is equivalent to a total yield of 0.21 Ton Bioproducts/Ton OFMSW or 0.947 Ton Bioproducts/Ton Volatile Solids contained in the OFMSW. CONCLUSIONS The conceptual design and simulation of the biorefinery process presented in this work indicate that it is technically feasible to obtain 3 different bioproducts from the OFMSW generated in CDMX. Computer‐aided process design will allow progress towards the circular economy, where biorefineries will play a leading role.