Identification of Key Drivers of Cost and Environmental Impact for Biomass-Derived Fuel for Advanced Multimode Engines Based on Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analysis

Journal Article · Wed Aug 03 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c00944· OSTI ID:1879596

Benavides, Pahola Thathiana  ^[1]; Bartling, Andrew W.  ^[2]; Phillips, Steven D. ^[3]; Hawkins, Troy R.  ^[1]; Singh, Avantika ^[2]; Zaimes, George G. ^[1]; Wiatrowski, Matthew  ^[2]; Harris, Kylee ^[2]; Burli, Pralhad H. ^[4]; Hartley, Damon  ^[4]; Alleman, Teresa  ^[2]; Fioroni, Gina  ^[2]; Gaspar, Daniel ^[3]

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1. Systems Assessment Group, Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States
2. National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
3. Energy Processes and Materials Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Boulevard, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
4. Operations Research and Analysis, Idaho National Laboratory, 2370 N Boulevard, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415, United States

Early stage research and development are needed to accelerate the introduction of advanced biofuel and engine technologies. Under the Co-Optima initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy is leveraging capabilities from its nine national laboratories and more than 35 university and industry partners including advanced computational tools, process design, data analysis, and economic and sustainability modeling tools to simultaneously design fuels and engines capable of running efficiently in an affordable, scalable, and sustainable way. In this work, we conducted techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) to understand the cost, technology development, and environmental impacts of producing selected bioblendstocks for advanced engines such as multimode (MM) type engines at the commercial scale. We assessed 12 biofuel production pathways from renewable lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks using different conversion technologies (biochemical, thermochemical, or hybrid) to produce target co-optimized biofuels. TEA and LCA were used to evaluate 19 metrics across technology readiness, economic viability, and environmental impact and for each ranked on a set of criteria as favorable, neutral, unfavorable, or unknown. We found that most bioblendstocks presented in this study showed favorable economic metrics, while the technology readiness metrics were mostly neutral. The economic viability results showed potentially competitive target costs of less than $$\$$4$$ per gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) for six candidates and less than $$\$$2.5$/GGE for methanol. We identified 10 MM bioblendstock candidates with synergistic blending performance and with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 60% or more compared to petroleumderived gasoline. The analysis presented here also provides insights into major economic and sustainability drivers of the production process and potential availability of the feedstocks for producing each MM bioblendstock.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Vehicle Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
• Grant/Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308; AC02-06CH11357; AC05-76RL01830; AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1879596
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1881921; OSTI ID: 1887885; OSTI ID: 1888812; OSTI ID: 1888813; OSTI ID: 1909531
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-5100-82085; PNNL-SA-175499
• Journal Information: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Journal Name: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Vol. 10 Journal Issue: 32; ISSN 2168-0485
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
09 BIOMASS FUELS
Biofuels
Multimode
Techno-economic analysis
Life cycle analysis
Technology readiness
Economic viability
Environmental impacts
Alcohols
Energy
Fossil fuels
Mixtures
Redox reactions
life cycle assessment
light duty biofuels
techno-economic analysis
biofuels
life-cycle analysis
multimode
technoeconomic analysis