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Life cycle and techno-economic assessment of transportation biofuels from hydrothermal liquefaction of forest residues in British Columbia

University of British Columbia

Biofuels from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of abundantly available forest residues in British Columbia (BC) can potentially make great contributions to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. Life cycle and techno-economic assessment are conducted to evaluate the environmental and economic performance of a hypothetic 100 million liters per year (MLPY) HTL biofuel system in the Coast Region of BC based on three different supply chain designs. The life cycle GHG emission of HTL biofuels ranges from 17.0-20.5 g CO₂-eq/MJ, corresponding to 78%-82% reduction compared with petroleum fuels. A further reduction of 6.8 g CO₂-eq/MJ can be achieved when by-product biochar is applied for soil amendment. The conversion stage dominates the total GHG emissions, making up more than 50%. The process emitting most GHGs over the life cycle of HTL biofuels is HTL buffer production. Transportation emissions can be lowered by 83% if forest residues are converted to bio-oil before transportation. Process performance parameters (e.g., HTL energy requirement and biofuel yield) and the location specific parameter (e.g., electricity mix) have significant influence on the GHG emissions of HTL biofuels. The economic analysis shows that the minimum selling price (MSP) of HTL biofuels ranges from $0.82-$0.90 per liter of gasoline equivalent, which is about 63%-80% higher than that of petroleum fuels. Converting forest residues to bio-oil and wood pellets before transportation can significantly lower the variable operating cost but not the MSP of HTL biofuels, due to the considerable increase in capital investment. Bio-oil and biofuel yield can significantly influence the MSP of HTL biofuels. Therefore, technology advancement is needed to bring down the production cost of HTL biofuels, otherwise, a high carbon tax can be applied to make HTL biofuels competitive with petroleum fuels.

Text

2018-07-03

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66391

Chemical and Biological Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/