Techno-Economic Feasibility of Distributed Torrefaction Systems Using Corn Stover Feedstock

This study investigated the economic feasibility of distributed torrefaction biorefining systems using corn stover feedstock to generate value-­‐added products. Distributed torrefaction systems have the potential to operate on private agricultural enterprises as well as community-­‐scale processing facilities, similar in scale to local grain elevators. Distributed systems will thus, reduce the need for large capital investments for dedicated commercial biorefining facilities and decrease logistical concerns for harvesting and marketing the torrefied corn stover products. In this study, a techno-­‐economic model was developed to analyze the economics of harvesting techniques, logistics, processing requirements, and end product utilization. Results were determined using baseline and sensitivity analyses to determine the effects of varied parameters on the performance of the torrefaction system and the value added products. This study indicated that distributed torrefaction could be economically viable under an array of cases of variable harvest, processing rates, and system sizes. Overall, appealing profits, payback periods, and return on investments were shown to occur

Export Potential of U.S. - Produced Switchgrass and Wood Pellets for the EU Market

European Union’s (EU) dependence on fossil fuel imports strongly affects its energy supply and economic and national stability. In order to reduce its dependence and maintain the leadership position in GHG emissions reductions and renewable energy consumption, EU has set ambitious targets of reducing GHG emissions by at least 20% compared with 1990, raising the share of renewable energy to 20% and increasing the levels of biofuels in transport fuels to 10% by 2020. While some of the countries, due to their large renewable potential, have already reached set targets, some are still far behind. Biomass, with 69.8% share in gross inland consumption of renewables, has the greatest potential. Since some EU members have low availability of biomass, and are scarce in other renewable sources, they have become biomass importers. As some studies have shown, imports of biomass reduce cost of achieving targets for renewable electricity and increase electricity production from biomass. Wood pellets, as currently the most tradable solid biomass commodity, already reached significant shares in imports and consumption of biomass in some EU countries. The most of pellets were traditionally imported from Canada; however, last year US became the EU’s largest importing partner with 534,000 tons of industrial pellets exported mainly to Belgium and Netherlands. The EU’s increasing demand for wood pellets was a major driver for substantial increase in the wood pellet production capacity in US, with many plants being constructed for export to EU. This thesis evaluates the possibility of producing wood and switchgrass pellets in East Tennessee, assuming three feedstock scenarios, and their export to EU. Results from the base-case model showed that production costs of pellets were $155,$164 and $170 per ton, while price of pellets on the EU market will have to be$207, $216 and$222 per ton in the 100% mill residue, 40/60 blend and 100% switchgrass scenarios, respectively, for the project to breakeven. Sensitivity analysis showed a strong impact of feedstock price, moisture and exchange ratio on project’s return on investment

Economic and Policy Factors Driving the Adoption of Institutional Woody Biomass Heating Systems in the United States

New biomass combustion technologies and adequate biomass supplies have empowered the United States (U.S.) to look beyond satisfying heating needs with traditional fossil-based fuels, but biomass heating is often overlooked by many commercial and institutional entities. This study uses county level Zero Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) cross sectional regression analyses to identify economic factors that are favorable to the adoption of decentralized woody biomass heating systems by institutions in the U.S. In addition, biomass policy efficacy with respect to decentralized biomass heating systems is analyzed and regression results are used to develop an expansion map that highlights counties in the U.S. that may be good targets for biomass heating. Across all three models higher heating degree days, population density, and available forest residues decrease the odds of a county not containing an institution using a decentralized biomass heating system, with forest residues being the best predictor. When predicting the likely count of institutions using biomass heating systems, heating degree days, commercial natural gas prices, median house value, available biomass from lands treated under the National Fire Plan, and the proportion of Forest Service land have statistically significant coefficients that are positive. An increase in each of these variables is positively associated with an increased likelihood of one or more institutions using biomass. State policies in support of biomass use were shown to have a negligible effect on the number of decentralized biomass heating systems, while procurement policies related to utility infrastructure and renewable products and fuels specifically have a negative association. It is worth noting that, though level of active management resulting in biomass production is not a policy variable per se, it has important policy dimensions. Both federal land management practices and resources allocated to fuel treatments under NFP are highly subject to public policy decisions, including budget allocations for forest restoration and fuels treatments. Future expansion in the use of decentralized biomass heating systems is predicted to be most successful in counties in the Northwest and Northeast, and to a lesser degree in counties in the states of Michigan, Colorado, and New Mexico

A Quantitative Environmental Assessment of Incorporating Torrefaction into Farming Enterprises in Eastern South Dakota

The use of renewable energy sources has been increasing in the recent years due to population growth and environmental concerns. Biomass is a promising energy source that can be used to produce biofuels or torrefied pellets. Torrefied biomass may be used in power plants, industrial and residential heating, feedstocks for gasification, air and water filtrating, and soil amendment. The interest of torrefied pellets as energy sources for various applications has been increased in the recent years due to the concerns about energy security and environmental issues. This study focuses on the economic and environmental assessment of agricultural feedstocks like corn stover, wheat straw, and soybean residues capable of producing torrefied pellets in the Eastern & Central South Dakota, Brookings. The techno-economic and environmental analysis of these feedstocks is required to understand the supply chain. GaBi ts – Life Cycle Assessment software, version 6.115 was used to analyze the potential environmental impacts of crop residues from the viewpoint of farmers and torrefaction facility. This study recommends farmers to follow corn-soybean rotation to have both the economic and environmental benefits. This study also shows that, when done responsibly, residue-based torrefaction reduce dependence on coal. Also, one of the significant findings from this LCA study is that crop residues are beneficial to crop grains in terms of global warming potential but have higher environmental emissions in terms of acidification and eutrophication potential

An overview of green jobs in the Louisiana forest sector

The term “green job” is a relatively new definition that defines employment activities that are likely to have occurred since the beginning of human existence. The push to identify, to quantify and to drive the growth of these jobs has recently been brought on by climate change and the depletion of Earth’s natural resources. According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, green jobs are either (a) Jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources or (b) Jobs in which workers’ duties involve making their establishment’s production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources. For the purposes of this study, seven “green job categories” were used. 1.Education, Public Awareness, and Compliance 2.Energy Efficiency 3.Green Certification 4.Greenhouse Gas Reduction 5.Pollution Reduction and Cleanup 6.Recycling and Waste Reduction 7.Renewable Energy In order to obtain information on green jobs in the Louisiana forest sector, a mail survey was administered to the known population of the Louisiana forest sector supply chain. Member sectors included loggers, primary producers, secondary manufacturers and brokers/distributors. The overarching objectives of the study were to classify and quantify current and future green jobs in the Louisiana forest sector and to develop an understanding of supply chain member attitudes and behaviors in the context of green jobs. Results indicate that a wide array of green jobs exist in the industry. Each green category is well represented and overall, respondents consider 12.7 percent of employment in the sector to be green. Additionally, respondents forecast that 16.7 percent of employment in the forest sector supply chain will be green in five years. Increased profits, government incentives and regulations and public perception were reported to be likely drivers of green job creation. Respondents claimed to have a clear understanding of the term “sustainability” while there were misconceptions about the term “green jobs” and their potential impacts on the industry. Study results suggest that education and, potentially training would benefit forest sector members that participate in the green jobs arena

Renewables 2012 Global Status Report

Renewable energy markets and policy frameworks have evolved rapidly in recent years. This report provides a comprehensive and timely overview of renewable energy market, industry, investment, and policy developments worldwide. It relies on the most recent data available, provided by a network of more than 400 contributors and researchers from around the world, all of which is brought together by a multi-disciplinary authoring team. The report covers recent developments, current status, and key trends; by design, it does not provide analysis or forecast the future. As such, this report and subsequent editions will serve as a benchmark for measuring global progress in the deployment of renewable energy, which is of particular interest in this International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has marked the occasion with a new global initiative, Sustainable Energy for All, which seeks to mobilise global action on three interlinked objectives to be achieved by 2030: universal access to modern energy services, improved rates of energy efficiency, and expanded use of renewable energy sources

Advancing Renewable Thermal Programs through Case Studies

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) is promoting the installation of renewable thermal systems in buildings in order to decrease the Commonwealth’s dependence on nonrenewable resources. The goal of this project was to improve and promote the installation of renewable thermal systems by evaluating three renewable thermal projects, an air source heat pump and two biomass systems, that are part of DOER programs. Through interviews and site visits, we gathered project process and performance information. We created informational fact sheets for each site detailing lessons learned for communities considering future projects. It is our hope that these fact sheets will lead to the implementation of more renewable thermal projects, each with more efficient implementations

Integrated Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analyses of Biomass Utilization for Value-Added Bioproducts in the Northeastern United States

A multi-stage spatial analysis was first conducted to select locations for lignocellulosic biomass-based bioproduct facility, using Geographical Information System (GIS) spatial analysis, multi-criteria analysis ranking algorithm, and social-economic assessment. A case study was developed to determine locations for lignocellulosic biorefineries using feedstocks including forest residue biomass and three energy crops for 13 states in the northeastern United States. In the entire study area, 11.1% of the counties are high-suitable, 48.8% are medium-suitable for biorefinery siting locations. A non-parametric analysis of cross-group surveys showed that preferences on biorefinery siting are homogeneous for experts in academia and industry groups, but people in government agencies presented different opinions. With the Maximum Likelihood test, parameters of distributions and mean values were estimated for nine weighted criteria. Social asset evaluation focusing on degree of rurality and social capital index further sorted counties with higher community acceptance and economic viability. A total of 15 counties were selected with the highest potential for biorefinery sites in the region. A mixed-integer linear programming model was then developed to optimize the multiple biomass feedstock supply chains, including feedstock establishment, harvest, storage, transportation, and preprocessing. The model was applied for analyses of multiple biomass feedstocks at county level for 13 states in the northeastern United States. In the base case with a demand of 180,000 dry Mg/year of biomass, the delivered costs ranged from $67.90 to$86.97 per dry Mg with an average of $79.58 /dry Mg. The biomass delivered costs by county were from$67.90 to 150.81 per dry Mg across the northeastern U.S. Considered the entire study area, the delivered cost averaged $85.30 /dry Mg for forest residues,$84.47 /dry Mg for hybrid willow, $99.68 for switchgrass and$97.87 per dry Mg for Miscanthus. Seventy seven out of 387 counties could be able to deliver biomass at $84 per dry Mg or less a target set by US DOE by 2022. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted to evaluate the effects of feedstock availability, feedstock price, moisture content, procurement radius, and facility demand on the delivered cost. Our results showed that procurement radius, facility capacity, and forest residue availability are the most sensitive factors affecting the biomass delivered costs. An integrated life cycle and techno-economic assessment was carried out for three bioenergy products derived from multiple lignocellulosic biomass. Three cases were studied for production of pellets, biomass-based electricity, and pyrolysis bio-oil. The LCA was conducted for estimating environmental impacts on cradle-to-gate basis with functional unit of 1000 MJ for bioenergy production. Pellet production had the lowest GHG emissions, water and fossil fuels consumption, for 8.29 kg CO2 eq, 0.46 kg, and 105.42 MJ, respectively. Conversion process presented a greater environmental impact for all three bioenergy products. With producing 46,926 tons of pellets, 260,000 MWh of electricity, and 78,000 barrels of pyrolysis oil, the net present values (NPV) for all three cases indicated only pellet and biopower production cases were profitable with NPVs$1.20 million for pellet, and $81.60 million for biopower. The pellet plant and biopower plant were profitable only when discount rates are less than or equal to 10A study evaluated the environmental and economic impacts of activated carbon (AC) produced from lignocellulosic biomass was evaluated for energy storage purpose. Results indicate that overall “in-plant production” process presented the highest environmental impacts. Normalized results of life cycle impact assessment showed that the AC production had environmental impacts mainly on carcinogenics, ecotoxicity, and non-carcinogenics categories. We then further focused on life cycle analysis from raw biomass delivery to plant gate, the results showed “feedstock establishment” has the most significant environmental impact, ranging from 50.3$6.66 million, and annual operation cost was $15.46 million. The AC required selling price (RSP) was$16.79 per kg, with the discounted payback period (DPB) of 9.98 years. Alternative cases of KOH-reuse and steam processes had GHG emission of 15.4 kg CO2 eq, and 10.2 kg CO2 eq for every 1 kg activated carbon, respectively. Monte Carlo simulation showed 49.96% of the probability for an investment to be profitable in activated carbon production for supercapacitor electrodes