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KR-102963402-B1 - AI-based biofuel production system including exhaust gas carbon dioxide capture structure

KR102963402B1KR 102963402 B1KR102963402 B1KR 102963402B1KR-102963402-B1

Abstract

An AI-based biofuel production system including an exhaust gas carbon dioxide capture structure is disclosed. The AI-based biofuel production system according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a carbon dioxide capture unit that captures, separates, and stores carbon dioxide from exhaust gas; a reactant supply unit that supplies oil, methanol, and liquid carbon dioxide required for a biofuel production reaction to a reaction execution unit; a reaction execution unit that reacts the substances supplied from the reactant supply unit to produce a reaction product; a product separation unit that separates the reaction product produced from the reaction execution unit into carbon dioxide, biodiesel, and remaining substances; a circulation supply unit that stores the biodiesel separated from the product separation unit in an external storage tank and recovers carbon dioxide and remaining substances to deliver to the reactant supply unit; and a supply reaction control unit that monitors the operation of the carbon dioxide capture unit, reactant supply unit, reaction execution unit, product separation unit, and circulation supply unit, and controls the operation based on an AI-based operation model.

Inventors

  • 민병길
  • 김학선
  • 이상희
  • 양다인

Assignees

  • 주식회사 메트로스펙트럼

Dates

Publication Date
20260511
Application Date
20250926
Priority Date
20250908

Claims (5)

  1. A carbon dioxide capture unit (110) that captures, separates, and stores carbon dioxide from exhaust gas; A reactant supply unit (120) that supplies oil, methanol, and liquid carbon dioxide required for the biofuel generation reaction to a reaction performing unit (130); A reaction performing unit (130) that reacts the substances supplied from the above reactant supply unit (120) to produce a reaction result; A product separation unit (140) that separates the reaction product generated from the above reaction execution unit (130) into carbon dioxide, biodiesel, and remaining substances; A circulation supply unit (150) that stores the biodiesel separated from the product separation unit (140) in an external storage tank, recovers carbon dioxide and the remaining substances, and delivers them to the reactant supply unit (120); and A supply reaction control unit (160) that monitors the operation of the carbon dioxide capture unit (110), reactant supply unit (120), reaction execution unit (130), product separation unit (140), and circulation supply unit (150), and controls the operation based on an AI-based operation model (162); Includes, The above carbon dioxide capture unit (110) is, An absorption tower module (111) that absorbs carbon dioxide using an absorbent by inhaling exhaust gas; A regeneration tower module (112) for separating the treated gas from the absorbent of the absorption tower module (111); A processing line module (113) comprising: a rich absorbent processing line that supplies a rich absorbent that has absorbed carbon dioxide within an absorption tower module (111) to an absorbent distributor; a first rich absorbent distribution line that supplies a portion of the rich absorbent divided from the absorbent distributor to a first heat exchanger; and a second rich absorbent distribution line that supplies the remaining rich absorbent divided from the absorbent distributor to a regeneration tower module (112) via an economizer; and A supply line module (114) comprising: a treatment gas discharge line that supplies the treatment gas discharged from the regeneration tower module (112) to a gas-liquid separator, passing through a first heat exchanger and a condenser; a condensate supply line that supplies the condensate separated from the gas-liquid separator to the regeneration tower, passing through a second heat exchanger; and a lean absorbent supply line that supplies the lean absorbent regenerated in the regeneration tower module (112) to the absorption tower module (111), passing through an economizer, a second heat exchanger, and a cooler. Includes, In the first heat exchanger above, the first rich absorbent supply line and the treatment gas discharge line cross each other to exchange heat, and In the second heat exchanger above, the lean absorbent is cooled by exchanging heat with the condensate, and The above-mentioned regeneration tower includes an inter-heater, and The above inter-heater uses high-temperature condensate generated in the reboiler as a heat source, and An AI-based biofuel production system characterized in that a portion of the absorbent solution within the regeneration tower module (112) is supplied to an inter-heater, heated, and reinjected into the regeneration tower module (112) at a flow rate of 10 to 1500 kmol/hr.
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  4. In paragraph 1, The above reactant supply unit (120) is, An oil recovery supply module (121) that stores oil required for a biofuel generation reaction, operates by a control signal of a supply reaction control unit (160) to supply oil to a reactant supply unit (120), and stores oil recovered from a circulation supply unit (150) after purifying it; A methanol recovery supply module (122) that stores methanol required for a biofuel generation reaction, operates by a control signal of a supply reaction control unit (160) to supply methanol to a reactant supply unit (120), and stores methanol recovered from a circulation supply unit (150) after purification; and A carbon dioxide recovery supply module (123) that stores liquid carbon dioxide by cooling the carbon dioxide separated from the carbon dioxide capture unit (110) through a cooler, supplies liquid carbon dioxide to the reactant supply unit (120) by operating according to a control signal of the supply reaction control unit (160), and stores liquid carbon dioxide by cooling the carbon dioxide recovered from the circulation supply unit (150) again through a cooler; An AI-based biofuel production system characterized by including
  5. In paragraph 4, The above product separation unit (140) is, A first separation module (141) for separating the reaction product generated from the above reaction execution unit (130) into carbon dioxide, biodiesel, and remaining substances; A second separation module (142) that separates a predetermined waste material from the remaining material separated from the first separation module (141) and separates and discharges it to a predetermined external waste space; and A purification module (143) that purifies the biodiesel separated from the first separation module (141) and transfers it to an external storage tank; An AI-based biofuel production system characterized by including

Description

AI-based biofuel production system including exhaust gas carbon dioxide capture structure The present invention relates to a biofuel production system, and more specifically, to an AI-based biofuel production system comprising an exhaust gas carbon dioxide capture structure. Biofuel production technology has garnered attention as a key sector for reducing dependence on fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energy sources. Conventional biofuel production processes generally involve reacting vegetable oils or animal fats with methanol to produce biodiesel. While this method has been hailed as an eco-friendly energy source capable of replacing fossil fuels, it presented a problem in that a significant amount of carbon dioxide was generated as a byproduct during the process. Since carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas and a primary cause of global warming, reducing emissions has emerged as a critical challenge. Traditional biofuel production facilities often operated without dedicated carbon capture capabilities or simply released exhaust gases into the atmosphere. While this approach can reduce initial investment costs, it leads to stricter carbon emission regulations and increased environmental costs in the long run. Furthermore, even when capture devices were present, low efficiency resulted in minimal actual carbon reduction. Consequently, existing systems possessed structural limitations that made it difficult to comply with environmental regulations. Although chemical absorption methods using absorbents were introduced in some processes for carbon dioxide capture, degradation of the absorbents and a decrease in capture efficiency frequently occurred during prolonged operation. Furthermore, the regeneration process required excessive thermal energy, increasing the overall energy consumption of the entire process, and there were issues with rising operating costs due to the lack of additional equipment necessary for recycling or efficiently storing captured carbon dioxide. Consequently, maintenance costs for the capture and regeneration processes increased, and the lifespan of the equipment was shortened. The reaction process within the biofuel production line also required continuous human intervention and detailed monitoring to maintain constant reaction conditions. However, manual control had limitations because the concentration, temperature, and pressure of reactants changed in real time during the process. This led to reduced reaction efficiency and fluctuations in production volume, making it difficult to maintain consistency in process quality. In particular, even small variations in the mixing ratio of methanol and oil or the reaction temperature directly affected the quality of the final biodiesel, reducing the homogeneity of the product. There was also a problem with the difficulty of completely separating carbon dioxide and byproducts during the product separation process. Existing physical and chemical separation methods struggled to balance process speed and efficiency, and impurities in the byproducts were highly likely to degrade the quality of the final biodiesel. Furthermore, the accumulation of contaminants during the reuse of recovered methanol or oil resulted in continuous re-purification costs. Consequently, structural issues were highlighted regarding the reduced economic viability during long-term operation. The low level of automation in existing biofuel production systems was also a major limitation. Most facilities were equipped with only simple sensors and basic control devices, which restricted the real-time collection and analysis of process data. The inability to perform automatic control based on real-time data limited advanced operations, such as optimizing energy consumption, maximizing reaction efficiency, and predicting equipment failures. Consequently, the inability to prevent unexpected breakdowns or quality degradation in advance resulted in unnecessary maintenance costs and the risk of production downtime. Amidst tightening environmental regulations, existing processes struggled to meet carbon emission reduction targets. While governments and the international community demand a continuous reduction in the carbon intensity of production processes to achieve carbon neutrality, traditional biofuel facilities failed to adequately consider these regulations from the design stage. This increased corporate compliance costs and acted as a factor causing a loss of market competitiveness in the long term. Furthermore, existing systems lacked flexibility in process design, making it difficult to optimize them for various industrial sites or production scales. Since standardized equipment and control methods were applied despite differences in exhaust gas composition and raw material characteristics at each site, customized process operation was virtually impossible. Consequently, problems frequently arose where site-specific requirements could not be reflected, leading