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Title: Techno-Economic Analysis of decentralized preprocessing systems for fast pyrolysis biorefineries with blended feedstocks in the southeastern United States

Abstract

This study evaluated the economic feasibility of fast pyrolysis biorefineries fed with blended pine residues and switchgrass in the Southeastern U.S. with different supply chain design. Previous techno-economic analyses (TEA) have focused on either blended biomass or decentralized preprocessing without investigating the impacts of varied process parameters, technology options, and real-world biomass distribution. This study fills the literature gap by modeling scenarios for different biomass blending ratios, biorefinery and preprocessing site (socalled depot) capacities, and alternative preprocessing technologies. High-resolution, real-world geospatial data were analyzed using Geographic Information Systems to facilitate supply chain design and TEA. For a decentralized system, the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) of biofuel was $3.92?$4.33 per gallon gasoline equivalent (GGE), while the MFSP for the centralized biorefinery at the same capacities ranged between $3.75?$4.02/GGE. Implementing a high moisture pelleting process depot rather than a conventional pelleting process lowered the MFSP by $0.03?$0.17/GGE. Scenario analysis indicated decreased MFSP with increasing biorefinery capacities but not necessarily with increasing depot size. Medium-size depots (500 OMDT/day) achieved the lowest MFSP. This analysis identified the optimal blending ratios for two preprocessing technologies at varied depot sizes. Counterintuitively, increasing the proportion of higher cost switchgrass reduced the MFSP for large biorefineries (>5000more » ODMT/day), but increased the MFSP for small biorefineries (1000?2500 ODMT/day). Although the decentralized systems have a higher MFSP based on current analysis, it has other potential benefits such as mitigated supply chain risks and improved feedstock quality that are difficult to be quantified in this TEA.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4]
  1. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
  3. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  4. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States); Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); North Carolina State University
OSTI Identifier:
1781053
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1782340; OSTI ID: 1798337
Grant/Contract Number:  
EE0006639; AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 143; Journal ID: ISSN 1364-0321
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
09 BIOMASS FUELS; Techno-economic analysis; Geographic information system; Biorefineries; Fast pyrolysis; Preprocessing sites; Depot; Blended feedstocks; biorefineries; depot; fast pyrolysis; geographic information systems; preprocessing sites; techno-economic analysis

Citation Formats

Lan, Kai, Ou, Longwen, Park, Sunkyu, Kelley, Stephen S., English, Burton C., Yu, T. Edward, Larson, James, and Yao, Yuan. Techno-Economic Analysis of decentralized preprocessing systems for fast pyrolysis biorefineries with blended feedstocks in the southeastern United States. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2021.110881.
Lan, Kai, Ou, Longwen, Park, Sunkyu, Kelley, Stephen S., English, Burton C., Yu, T. Edward, Larson, James, & Yao, Yuan. Techno-Economic Analysis of decentralized preprocessing systems for fast pyrolysis biorefineries with blended feedstocks in the southeastern United States. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110881
Lan, Kai, Ou, Longwen, Park, Sunkyu, Kelley, Stephen S., English, Burton C., Yu, T. Edward, Larson, James, and Yao, Yuan. Fri . "Techno-Economic Analysis of decentralized preprocessing systems for fast pyrolysis biorefineries with blended feedstocks in the southeastern United States". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110881. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1781053.
@article{osti_1781053,
title = {Techno-Economic Analysis of decentralized preprocessing systems for fast pyrolysis biorefineries with blended feedstocks in the southeastern United States},
author = {Lan, Kai and Ou, Longwen and Park, Sunkyu and Kelley, Stephen S. and English, Burton C. and Yu, T. Edward and Larson, James and Yao, Yuan},
abstractNote = {This study evaluated the economic feasibility of fast pyrolysis biorefineries fed with blended pine residues and switchgrass in the Southeastern U.S. with different supply chain design. Previous techno-economic analyses (TEA) have focused on either blended biomass or decentralized preprocessing without investigating the impacts of varied process parameters, technology options, and real-world biomass distribution. This study fills the literature gap by modeling scenarios for different biomass blending ratios, biorefinery and preprocessing site (socalled depot) capacities, and alternative preprocessing technologies. High-resolution, real-world geospatial data were analyzed using Geographic Information Systems to facilitate supply chain design and TEA. For a decentralized system, the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) of biofuel was $3.92?$4.33 per gallon gasoline equivalent (GGE), while the MFSP for the centralized biorefinery at the same capacities ranged between $3.75?$4.02/GGE. Implementing a high moisture pelleting process depot rather than a conventional pelleting process lowered the MFSP by $0.03?$0.17/GGE. Scenario analysis indicated decreased MFSP with increasing biorefinery capacities but not necessarily with increasing depot size. Medium-size depots (500 OMDT/day) achieved the lowest MFSP. This analysis identified the optimal blending ratios for two preprocessing technologies at varied depot sizes. Counterintuitively, increasing the proportion of higher cost switchgrass reduced the MFSP for large biorefineries (>5000 ODMT/day), but increased the MFSP for small biorefineries (1000?2500 ODMT/day). Although the decentralized systems have a higher MFSP based on current analysis, it has other potential benefits such as mitigated supply chain risks and improved feedstock quality that are difficult to be quantified in this TEA.},
doi = {10.1016/j.rser.2021.110881},
journal = {Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews},
number = ,
volume = 143,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Mar 05 00:00:00 EST 2021},
month = {Fri Mar 05 00:00:00 EST 2021}
}

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