Environmental Life Cycle Implications of Fuel Oxygenate Production from California Biomass

Technical Report · Thu May 20 00:00:00 EDT 1999

OSTI ID:6229388

Glazebrook, B E ^[1]; Simeroth, D C ^[2]; Nehoda, K C ^[3]

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1. Ecobalance Inc.
2. California Air Resources Board
3. California Department of Forestry.

Historically, more than 90% of the excess agricultural residue produced in California (approximately 10 million dry metric tons per year) has been disposed through open-field burning. Concerns about air quality have prompted federal, state, and local air quality agencies to tighten regulations related to this burning and to look at disposal alternatives. One use of this biomass is as an oxygenated fuel. This report focuses on quantifying and comparing the comprehensive environmental flows over the life cycles of two disposal scenarios: (1) burning the biomass, plus producing and using MTBE; and (2) converting and using ETBE.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 6229388
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP-580-25688; ON: DE00009538
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
BIOMASS
CALIFORNIA
ETHANOL
ETHERS
LIFE CYCLE
ALCOHOLS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ENERGY SOURCES
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
USA
090000* - Biomass Fuels