Economic and life cycle assessments of biomass utilization for bioenergy products

Liu, Weiguo; Wang, Jingxin; Richard, Tom L.; Hartley, Damon S.; Spatari, Sabrina; Volk, Timothy A.

doi:10.1002/bbb.1770

Economic and life cycle assessments of biomass utilization for bioenergy products

Journal Article · Thu May 04 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.1770· OSTI ID:1357763

Liu, Weiguo ^[1]; Wang, Jingxin ^[1]; Richard, Tom L. ^[2]; Hartley, Damon S. ^[3]; Spatari, Sabrina ^[4]; Volk, Timothy A. ^[5]

West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States)
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Syracuse, NY (United States)

A modeling process was developed to examine the economic and environmental benefits of utilizing energy crops for biofuels and bioproducts. Three energy crops (hybrid willow, switchgrass and miscanthus) that can potentially grow on marginal agricultural land or abandoned mine land in the northeastern United States were considered in the analytical process for the production of biofuels, biopower and pellet fuel. The supply chain components for both the economic analysis and life cycle modeling processes included feedstock establishment, harvest, transportation, storage, preprocessing, conversion, distribution and final usage. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to assess the effects of energy crop yield, transportation distance, conversion rate, facility capacity and internal rate of return (IRR) on the production of bioenergy products. The required selling price (RSP) ranged from $ 7.7/GJ to $ 47.9/GJ for different bioproducts. The production of biopower had the highest RSP and pellet fuel had the lowest. The results also indicated that bioenergy production using hybrid willow demonstrated lower RSP than the two perennial grass feedstocks. Pellet production presented the lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (less than 10 kg CO₂ eq per 1,000 MJ) and fossil energy consumption (less than 150 MJ per 1,000 MJ). The production of biofuel resulted in the highest GHG emissions. Sensitivity analysis indicated that IRR was the most sensitive factor to RSP and followed by conversion rate for biofuel and biopower production. As a result, conversion rate and transportation distance of feedstock presented a significant effect on environmental impacts during the production of the bioproducts.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC07-05ID14517

OSTI ID:: 1357763

Report Number(s):: INL/JOU--16-39807

Journal Information:: Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, Journal Name: Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 11; ISSN 1932-104X

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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