TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of biomass hydrothermal liquefaction and biocrude-oil upgrading for renewable jet fuel production
T2 - The impact of reaction conditions on production costs and GHG emissions performance
AU - Tzanetis, Konstantinos F.
AU - Posada, John A.
AU - Ramirez, Andrea
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - This paper shows a detailed analysis of a biomass HTL process by considering changes in three main reaction variables (i.e. catalysts (water, Na2CO3(aq.), and Fe(aq.)), temperature (280–340 °C), and catalysts/biomass mass ratio (0–0.33 kg catalysts/kg biomass)), and by assessing their influence on the techno-economic and GHG emissions performance. This analysis is based on Aspen Plus® simulations, process economics and life-cycle GHG assessment on SimaPro (using Ecoinvent 2.2). Results showed that the lowest production cost for biocrude oil is achieved when HTL is performed at 340 °C with Fe as catalyst (450 €/tbiocrude-oil or 13.6 €/GJbiocrude-oil). At these conditions, the biocrude oil produced has an oxygen content of 16.6 wt% and a LHV of 33.1 MJ/kgbiocrude-oil. When the hydrotreatment and hydrogen generation units are included, the total production costs was 1040 €/tupgraded-oil or 0.8 €/Lupgraded-oil. After fractionation, the estimated production cost was 1086 €/tbiojet-fuel or 25.1 €/GJbiojet-fuel. This value is twice the commercial price of fossil jet fuel. However, the allocated life cycle GHG emissions for renewable jet fuel were estimated at 13.1 kgCO2-eq./GJbiojet-fuel, representing only 15% the GHG emission of fossil jet fuel and therefore, indicating a significant potential on GHG emission reduction.
AB - This paper shows a detailed analysis of a biomass HTL process by considering changes in three main reaction variables (i.e. catalysts (water, Na2CO3(aq.), and Fe(aq.)), temperature (280–340 °C), and catalysts/biomass mass ratio (0–0.33 kg catalysts/kg biomass)), and by assessing their influence on the techno-economic and GHG emissions performance. This analysis is based on Aspen Plus® simulations, process economics and life-cycle GHG assessment on SimaPro (using Ecoinvent 2.2). Results showed that the lowest production cost for biocrude oil is achieved when HTL is performed at 340 °C with Fe as catalyst (450 €/tbiocrude-oil or 13.6 €/GJbiocrude-oil). At these conditions, the biocrude oil produced has an oxygen content of 16.6 wt% and a LHV of 33.1 MJ/kgbiocrude-oil. When the hydrotreatment and hydrogen generation units are included, the total production costs was 1040 €/tupgraded-oil or 0.8 €/Lupgraded-oil. After fractionation, the estimated production cost was 1086 €/tbiojet-fuel or 25.1 €/GJbiojet-fuel. This value is twice the commercial price of fossil jet fuel. However, the allocated life cycle GHG emissions for renewable jet fuel were estimated at 13.1 kgCO2-eq./GJbiojet-fuel, representing only 15% the GHG emission of fossil jet fuel and therefore, indicating a significant potential on GHG emission reduction.
KW - Bio-oil upgrading
KW - Economic evaluation
KW - GHG emissions
KW - Hydrothermal liquefaction
KW - Jet biofuel
KW - Lignocellulosic biofuels
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85022012996&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2017.06.104
DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2017.06.104
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85022012996
SN - 0960-1481
VL - 113
SP - 1388
EP - 1398
JO - Renewable Energy
JF - Renewable Energy
ER -
