Biofuels from waste to road transport

Biofuels from Waste to Road (WASTE2ROAD) is an EU funded project under the Grant Agreement No. 818120 within the LC-SC3-RES-21-2018 call, “Development of next generation biofuels and alternative renewable fuel technologies for road transport”, as a Research and Innovation Action of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme. The project started in the fall 2018 and will run for 4 years. In 2014, total waste production in the EU amounted to 2.5 billion tons. From this total only a limited (albeit increasing) share (36%) was recycled, while the rest was landfilled or burned, of which some 600 million tons could have been recycled or reused. Conversion of all sustainably available biogenic wastes and residues to biofuels could provide 27% of total transport fuel by 2050, achieving around 2.1 gigatons of CO2 emission reductions per year. The increasing demand for biofuels[1] implies the need for the transformation of diverse bio-resources into liquid fuels, and includes transformation of the biogenic part of municipal and industrial wastes into such biofuels. This clearly is a stepping stone to achieve the European goals[2] but it also poses challenges, such as 1) diversity and inhomogeneity of wastes throughout Europe (variable composition depending on the type of waste and geographical location), 2) the complexity of the conversion of wastes compared to fossil oils, 3) the technological aspects of co-refining and 4) high overall costs with moderate process performance. [1] https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/Biofuels_Roadmap_WEB.pdf [2] https://europeanclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/WASTED-final.pdf Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Developing circularity, renewability and efficiency indicators for sustainable resource management : propanol production as a showcase

Resource efficiency analysis is an important tool in the chemical sector to evaluate the performance of new process concepts. However, such analysis does not account for the renewability and circularity of resources. Therefore, a resource efficiency and use analysis, including those two aspects, is proposed in this paper. A renewability indicator and recovery indicator were calculated as a measure for renewability and circularity, respectively. In addition, the resource efficiency was determined at different levels. At the life cycle level, the cumulative exergy extraction of the natural environment method was applied and the cumulative degree of perfection, including waste-as-resources, was calculated. Exergy calculations were used to determine the exer-getic efficiency at process chain and plant level and to identify inefficiencies. A new propanol production concept, using biogas (scenario BG), marginal gas (scenario MG) and associated gas (scenario AG), was selected as a case study. Exergetic efficiencies are high at the individual process level (between 90 and 100%). However, the preceding biogas production in scenario BG is inefficient (exergetic efficiency of 12%). The exergetic effi-ciency at the process chain level amounts to 45-68% due to the high exergy content of the recycling stream and the low conversion of methane into propanol per pass. Scenario AG has the highest cumulative degree of perfection (including waste-as-resources) compared to the other scenarios (28% against 6 and 14% in scenario BG and MG). In contrast, when looking at both renewability, circularity and efficiency, scenario BG is identified as the most promising scenario. Thus, this study shows that it is important to include those three aspects in resource efficiency analysis. Finally, implementing renewable electricity production and heat integration in the process concept may increase the resource efficiency

Towards alternative solutions for flaring : life cycle assessment and carbon substance flow analysis of associated gas conversion into C3 chemicals

Gas flaring has many environmental impacts at global and local scale. Conversion of associated gas into 1-propanol (scenario PRL) and propylene (scenario PRE) via the C123 process can be a potential solution to prevent combustion. This paper aims to evaluate the environmental performance of C3 production from associated gas compared to flaring and to identify the preferred C3 chemical for associated gas conversion. A carbon substance flow analysis (CSFA) and a life cycle assessment (LCA) were conducted. CSFA was used to map all carbon flows and to calculate the carbon emission savings and carbon efficiency. The LCA focused on the impact categories climate change, fossil resource use, human toxicity and the cumulative exergy extraction from the environment. The results of the CSFA indicate that 2.89 kg CO2 per kg associated gas could be saved in scenario PRL, when including the avoided conventional C3 production in the analysis. The LCA shows that scenario PRL outperforms flaring for climate change and human toxicity. Consequently, 1-propanol production from associated gas is the preferred alternative at the selected location. Heat integration and renewable electricity production can drastically decrease the impact of C3 chemicals production on climate change and enable CO2 emissions savings compared to flaring

Techno-economic feasibility of a sunflower husk fast pyrolysis value chain for the production of advanced biofuels

Biofuels are required to reach the target set out by the European Commission’s Transport mandate in the RED II (Renewable Energy Directive) for 2020 – 2030. To avoid indirect land use change, waste biomass resources such as sunflower husks can be used for advanced biofuel production. A process simulation and technoeconomic assessment of three fast pyrolysis plant scenarios were conducted. The nature of the waste feedstock has an effect on the value chain configuration, fast pyrolysis, and upgrading process design. Considering the difficulties with the transport and storage of biogenic waste due to low bulk density or hazardous and pathogenic content in case of transporting untreated sunflower husks, it is recommended to use a hub-and-spoke type of decentralized value chain configuration. The fast pyrolysis plants are located close to the feedstock, and the fast pyrolysis bio-oil (FPBO) is transported to a single upgrading facility, colocated at an existing refinery. The upgraded FPBO is then cofed into an FCC (fluidized catalyst cracker), where partially green biofuels such as gasoline and diesel are produced. For the fast pyrolysis process design, Scenario 2, treating 10 t/h of dry biomass with electricity and steam as coproducts, has the most favorable economic results with a total capital investment (TCI) of 78 million Euro and operating expenses (OPEX) of 6 million Euro

Environmental performance assessment of a novel process concept for propanol production from widely available and wasted methane sources

Currently, propanol production highly depends on conventional fossil resources. Therefore, an alternative production process, denoted as "C123", is proposed and evaluated in which underutilized and methane-rich feedstocks such as biogas (scenario BG), marginal gas (scenario MG), and associated gas (scenario AG) are converted into propanol. A first modular-scale process concept was constructed in Aspen Plus, based on experimental data and know-how of the C123 consortium partners. The environmental performance of the considered scenarios was compared at the life cycle level by calculating key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the global warming burden. The results showed that scenario BG is the least dependent on fossil fuels for energy use. Scenario AG seems the most promising one based on almost all selected KPIs when taking into account the avoided gas flaring emissions. The performance of the C123 process concept could be improved by applying heat integration in the process concept