CR4 - Blog: APIX Pilot Plant Design Project – Recycling Wastes

APIX Pilot Plant Design Project - Recycling Wastes

The Agro-Polymer Industry Complex (APIX) Pilot Plant Design is a logo co-operative engineered non-profit design for an integrated and interrelated techno-commercial process system for farming co-operatives and small communities in under-developed/ developing nations wherein the entire biomass generated in any form of agriculture/ vegetation system would be converted into energy producing products, processed foods, fertilizers, and marketable polymer composite products. The purpose is to provide a fully engineered design which could be manufactured in modules suitable for installation and safe operation within limited resources of local unskilled or semi-skilled persons.

APIX Pilot Plant Design Project - Recycling Wastes
Introduction, Mission and Goals

schematic for bio-conversions overall process block diagram
Figure 1 - Overall Process Block Diagram

Agro-Polymer Industry Complex (APIX) is the complete conversion and recycling of all available renewable resources in an ecological surroundings, wherein both Agro-resources and other plant, vegetation, and organic matter are processed into food materials, engineered products, chemicals (alternate petrochemicals), energy and bio-fertilizers through an integrated and inter-related techno-commercial process systems.Hitherto agriculture had never been thought of as potential engineering materials and energy source center. The illustration above partially presents the series of operations and processes involved in an APIX set up. It being a schematic presentation, does not show the details of various intermediate operations and logistics. If we exclude the basic agriculture operation from our APIX set up, the process would begin with procurement of the Biomass raw materials.

(NOTE: The word "Polymer" in the phrase "AGRO-POLYMER" does not signify the literal technical meaning, but it connotes a higher significance – that pertaining to a series of inter-connected process activities in the APIX set up; and, although our main thrust is on conversion of wastes, APIX is an "all encompassing" operational set up that would also process food materials, non-food crops and other specific farm based Agro-produces )

THE PROCESSES IN APIX SET UP

APIX would be a self-content industrial process entity within a farm ecological area and surroundings, wherein the basic raw materials are: Agro-food produce, non-food crops, agrowastes (farm wastes including animal and plant wastes), non farm plants vegetative materials, felled and fallen trees, shrubs, weeds, and grass clippings. Additional materials are externally introduced inorganic materials and process ingredients such as quartz, calcium carbonate, enzymes, polymers, chemical initiators, and accelerators. The "techno-economic" processes would be in four "levels": Procurement, Transportation, and Storage (Level 1); Preliminary processes (Level 2); First stage production processes – Packing for direct marketing, Food processing, Bio-processing, Cellulose-processing, Thermo-chemical processing and Wood processing (Level 3); Downstream analogous Petrochemical complex and Energy conversion processes would form the last section in the APIX systems (Level 4)

PROCUREMENT. TRANSPORTATION and STORAGE (level 1):

The following items will be addressed:

  1. Procurement of harvested food materials.
  2. Procurement of agrowastes, resulting from harvest.
  3. Procurement of non-crop Agro-resources and other vegetation resources.
  4. Procurement of "larger mass" tree resources and shrub plants.
  5. Procurement of animal/ organic wastes.
  6. Procurement of auxiliary materials such as chemicals, enzymes, polymers, etc.
  7. Transportation and storage of all the above.
  8. Transportation and storage of other auxiliary inputs (chemicals, polymers, etc)

Questions to be answered:
What are the standards for procurement? At what frequency of procurement is required? What price should be offer for the raw materials? What systems of equipments, contrivance, tools are required? What conditions are needed for transportation, storage, refrigeration, air-conditioning, dehumidification, drying? What systems of equipment, contrivance, tools are required?

PRELIMINARY PROCESSES (level 2):

The following items will be addressed:

  1. Preparing Food Produce for either direct marketing or food-processing.
  2. Preparing agrowastes for conversions into engineered products and downstream chemicals/ energy/ analogous petrochemicals processing.
  3. Preparing non-farm vegetation systems for downstream processing as in 2 above.
  4. Preparing animal/ organic wastes for downstream processing for chemicals/ energy/ analogous petrochemicals processing.
  5. Preparing tree/ shrub plants for conversion as in 2 above.

Discussions and Questions:
The engineering conversions begin at this level, and we shall need to define various "subsidiary" processes. For example, direct marketing of food produce would need packaging and labeling, which would call for a subsidiary production set up of a packaging unit. Agrowastes conversions into composites and engineered products will need Polymers and other ingredients, which are more economically obtained by producing in-situ. Any such subsidiary process would also produce wastes, which need to be recycled. How do we integrate these subsidiary processes into mainstream?

FIRST STAGE PRODUCTION PROCESSES (Level 3):

The following items will be addressed:

  1. Food Materials Marketing procedures.
  2. Processed and Converted Food procedures.
  3. Bio-Digestion Processes:
    • Anaerobic digestion.
    • Fermentation's.
  4. Cellulose processes:
    • Fiber conversions.
    • Textiles.
    • Composites.
    • Wood substitutes.
  5. Thermo-chemical processes:
    • Cracking and Pyrolysis.
    • Syn-gas.
    • Aromatics.
    • Other organic chemicals.
  6. Wood Conversions:
    • Plywood.
    • Composites.
    • Furniture.
    • Other manufactured items.

As seen in the illustration, Figure 1 Overall Process Block Diagram, these processes are highly dependent on one another, and the interconnection logistics would have to be efficiently and economically designed. The entire wastes that are generated in each process would be fully recycled.

DOWNSTREAM PRODUCTION PROCESSES (Level 4):

The following items will be addressed:

  1. Analogous Petrochemical Complexes (these could be either Sugar/ Gums/ Protein based or Anaerobic Methane platform)
  2. Energy processes (direct use of methane in anaerobic system or petrochemical converted material from aerobic processes)

Although the current technology and engineering in petrochemical systems are based on "high volume" availability of Fossil Fuel systems, this design would develop new, economic arrangements that would convert low volumes of product systems developed through Agro-resources, into value added materials and energy.

MISSION

Our Mission is to design, device, construct, operate and commercialize ecologically benign APIX systems, which would empower the small farm or village communities to fully utilize all available Agro-renewable resources, animal, organic waste resources as well as all the other available vegetation, plant, tree resources in the surroundings. The ultimate objective is to assist in setting up hundreds of APIX systems in modules of 1, 000 hectare (2, 471.0538 acre) farmlands and village lands all over the world – each such thousand hectare module (to be named APIX-1000) being designed to averagely turnout products and resources in the range of US $20 million to US $50 million.

GOALS

  • Our Primary Goal is to form a non-profit World Engineering Organization through Internet based association, involving men and women worldwide interested in contributing toward socio-economic benefits of the lesser developed peoples of the world, through practical applications of concepts and themes in science and technology, and engineering these to serve the public at large.
  • The immediate Goal is to design an APIX Pilot Plant that would have as input @ one-tenth the volumes of an average one-thousand hectare farmland or village land resources. This Design would be named APIX-Pilot. The said design would be continually improved from time to time, as per the field experiences and feed backs, once commercial systems are operational.
  • Our long term Goal is to contribute toward reduction of green house gases (GSG) as well as develop total alternate energy systems from renewable resources.

It is clear when reviewing the size and complexity of this project that the most practical and engineering sensible way to process with this project it to divide it into modules. The following list of modules will also serve as the index to the modules:

  1. Bio-Digestion, aka, septic tank, anaerobic digestion.
  2. Fermentation, aka, sugar platform.
  3. Pyrolysis, aka, biomass gasification, syn-gas.
  4. (as defined)
  5. (as defined)
  6. (as defined)

AN INVITATION FROM GARTHH AND HARIHARAN, of the founding team:

"Calling Engineers, Scientists, Technologists, Journalists, Artists, Venture Capitalists, Academicians, Community Leaders and all those interested in economically developing the THREE Billion people who earn less than US $2 per day! Join APIX-SEP Group ( Agro Polymer Industry Complex -Sustainable Engineering Project ), an Open Source Company identifying, designing, developing, and implementing Projects that would empower these people in the less developed areas of the world. The polymer composite module utilizes JEC Green Innovation Award winning technology.

"No donations or charity called for; but let us focus our might through imagination, mission and vision. The ultimate objective is to set up Sustainable Development Projects in hundreds of selected areas. – projects that would become centers of Wealth creation in areas currently considered dilapidated and devastated, allowing local people to earn their livelihood in one's own native environment. Every project would be positive motivating force for local entrepreneurs, we will have the satisfaction of Creating a system of sustainable economic and social development and also being part of the new economic Paradigm that would follow.

"Would you like to part of the working group? We're still getting organized. Hari has done some trials & had to finance out of his pocket. Soon we will be breaking into groups to tackle specific tasks. When we've more defined a business plan, we will start soliciting working capitol.

"Regular email has some advantages, please feel free to contribute in any capacity you wish, even just posting to the threads. Those of you who would like to become members of the working team please email me a short biography. Contact me at [email protected] Thank you for your consideration. I will submit it to the members of the working group.

"Here is a list of related links and related CR4 discussions:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/4149/APIX-Pilot-Plant-Design-Project-Recycling-Wastes-Mission-
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/14412#newcomments
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/15125#newcomments
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/Agro-Polymer_Industry_Complex/message/96
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chtank/apix.htm
Please feel free to join us and contribute in whatever form you would like.

Thank you, again, for your consideration,
E-mail me: Garthh or HARIHARAN PV (project manager)"

AN INVITATION FROM CHTANK, a member of the team:

Any and all persons wishing to participate in any part of this project are welcome to either join the CR4 APIX PROJECT and/or the YAHOO APIX PROJECT. Your input will be valuable even if you are not an engineer. However, anyone who is an Engineering student or experienced Engineer or a Autocad capable draftsman would be most welcome. For each module, we will be need Process Flow Diagrams, Preliminary Hazards Analysis, Mechanical Flow Diagrams, Final Hazards Analysis, Detailed Designs. Although much of the equipment and technology is off the shelf and long standing, when we apply engineering to the designs, we wish that each module meet all the proper design safety certifications and assurances. There is a strong likely hood that these modules will be constructed, manufactured, and operated by semi-skilled and unskilled persons in remote and undeveloped locations.

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You may join CR4 APIX PROJECT and/or the YAHOO APIX PROJECT
E-Mail questions to: HARIHARAN PV (project manager) or to CHTANK (project consultant)