Biofuels and the biorefinery concept

Biofuels: Alternative Feedstocks and Conversion Processes for the Production of Liquid and Gaseous Biofuels, 2019

The mass and energy data of all the stages in biofuel production are important to perform an environmental assessment. Biofuel production from lignocellulose involves several pesticides, fertilizer, water, and energy in the agriculture stage, process chemicals, catalysts, heat and energy in the production stage, fuels in the transport and distribution stage, and vehicle in the use stage. It is cumbersome to collect, organize, and verify the life cycle data of all these stages individually. However, several databases are available to obtain these data necessary for the study. There are critically reviewed and discussed in a concise manner. This section provides the overview of such databases. Ecoinvent: Ecoinvent is a Swiss-based life cycle inventory (LCI) database. A large input and impact data set related to agriculture energy supply, transport, biofuels and biomaterials, bulk and specialty chemicals, construction materials, wood, and waste treatment are 7.3 SELECTED CASES OF WIDE SCOPE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF BIOMASS AND BIOENERGY 7.3.1 Overview of the Selected Cases for Wide Scope Environmental Assessment Given the different methods available for EIA, several literature studies on the assessment of biomass and bioenergy exist. In this section, the assessment studies related to approaches such as SEA, MFA, LCA, EIA of projects, and CIA are segregated under respective subsection to summarize the findings. Among the literature availability, LCA has the highest number of studies that is attributed to its attractiveness in the recent years. Therefore, more emphasis is given on that approach.

This study reviews the biofuel valorization facilities as well as the future importance of biorefineries. Biomass can be converted into useful biofuels and bio-chemicals via biomass upgrading and biorefinery technologies. A biorefinery is a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes to produce fuels, power, and chemicals from biomass. Biomass upgrading processes include fractionation, liquefaction, pyrolysis, hydrolysis, fermentation, and gasification. Upgraded bio-oil from biomass pyrolysis can be used in vehicle engines as fuel. The benefits of an integrated biorefinery are numerous because of the diversification in feedstocks and products. There are currently several different levels of integration in biorefineries which adds to their sustainability, both economically and environmentally. Economic and production advantages increase with the level of integration in the biorefinery.

2018

International Journal of Energy Production and Management, 2020

following the cOP21 conference in Paris, most of the world's industrialized countries, as well as emerging markets, pledged to reduce or stabilize their greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions in light of increasing concerns regarding climate change . The necessity to decrease ghg emissions will have implications on the consumption patterns of different types of energies around the world. apart from the obvious need to replace part of the increasing fossil fuel consumption in transportation (including road, rail, air and sea), there is a growing demand in other sectors as well, such as for electricity production, heating and cooling. Many opportunities are being investigated to address some of the issues related to this green energy transition, including the increased harnessing of alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass. Despite varying potential for each of the mentioned energy sources to help replace or supplement fossil fuels, only biomass currently has the potential to address most of these needs without requiring significant changes to existing energy distribution networks. for example, biomass can be burnt to generate combined heat and power, but it can also be used as a source of carbon to produce biofuels. In the latter case, biofuels such as ethanol could be blended into the existing fuel pool as well as distributed and utilized in engines without requiring significant modifications to the existing chain of distribution. This adaptiveness is not necessarily the case when considering electric vehicles (EV), although they are also of crucial importance towards collectively reducing ghg emissions. This manuscript will review the Biorefinery Done right-concept, developed by the company réSolve Énergie in close collaboration with the Biomass Technology laboratory. This simple feedstock-agnostic technology allows conversion of any type of residual biomass (including but not limited to softwood bark) to three-types of biofuels. The first objective is to take advantage of the carbohydrate content in the biomass through hydrolysis of the constitutive hemicellulose and cellulose. The fermentable sugars are then converted to ethanol, achieved without any constraints, since the réSolve process generates a hydrolysate with very low inhibitor levels. The lignin recovered from the process is essentially unmodified lignin and after washing, it is pelletized. Pellets, containing the most energetic components of the lignocellulosic biomass, can provide up to 26 gJ/tonne. finally, the non-fermentable sugars (c5), as well as the lignin that does not comply with grade a lignin characteristics, are predigested for utilization in a classical biomethanation system. hence, through this approach, 100% of the carbon from the biomass is converted into commercial products, which at this point are all related to the energy market.

Biofuels - State of Development

2013