Bioenergy Biotechnology (ES97B)

M.Sc. Sustainable Energy Technologies

Lecture 5-6, October 9th, 2017
Summary of previous lecture
Atmospheric CO2, >400ppm

• Greenhouse gas emission targets

 25 - 40% below 1990 levels by 2020
 80 - 95% below 1990 levels by 2050

In order to stabilize below 450 ppm CO2-eq concentration

"reasonable chance" of averting warming beyond 2˚C above pre-

industrial temperature that would lead to catastrophic consequences.
Summary of previous lecture
1. Remove CO2 using a chemical (reduction) reaction.
2. Capture the CO2 and to store it.

 Hubert curve;

 prediction of exhaustion of oil reserves

Fully integrated agro-biofuel-biomaterial-biopower
cycle for sustainable technologies
Fraction of oil for chemicals production
Strategies for the production of liquid
fuels from biomass
Sources of biodiesel
Constituents of non food biomass
Constituents of non food biomass
Ligno-cellulose feedstock biorefinery
Thermo vs. bio transformation
Summary of biomass conversion routes
Gasification & Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis and liquefaction
It’s simple then? Bioenergy is Carbon Neutral and
does not make a net contribution to GHG emissions?

Opinion of the EEA Scientific Committee on Greenhouse Gas

Accounting in Relation to Bioenergy (2011)

‘It is widely assumed that biomass combustion would be inherently

'carbon neutral' because it only releases carbon taken from the
atmosphere during plant growth. However, this assumption is not correct
and results in a form of double-counting, as it ignores the fact that using
land to produce plants for energy typically means that this land is not
producing plants for other purposes, including carbon otherwise
sequestered. If bioenergy production replaces forests, reduces forest
stocks or reduces forest growth, which would otherwise sequester
more carbon, it can increase the atmospheric carbon
concentration.’
Life Cycle Analysis and Carbon Foot
printing

 LCA is now the principle method of

evaluating the impacts of all types of
product or service

 ‘a carbon footprint’ is a life cycle

assessment with the analysis
limited to emissions that have an
effect on climate change'
What is Life Cycle Analysis?
– Life Cycle Analysis/Assessment is the “compilation and evaluation of the
inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system
throughout its life cycle”. (ISO 14040:2006)

– Life Cycle Analysis/Assessment “is a “cradle-to-grave” approach for assessing

industrial systems.” (SAIC, LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT: PRINCIPLES AND
PRACTICE)

– “LCA enables the estimation of the cumulative environmental impacts

resulting from all stages in the product life cycle…” (SAIC, LIFE CYCLE
ASSESSMENT: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE)

Image source: www.extension.org

Life Cycle Analysis

www.southwest-environmental.co.uk, www.valmont.com
Conducting a LCA (ISO 14040);

– Allows areas within a products life cycle that exerts an impact on the
environment to be pinpointed and targeted for improvement.

– It can help with decision making relating “strategic planning, priority setting,
product or process design or redesign” and public policy making.

– Consumers are more aware of the potential negative impacts

product/process can have on the environment.

– Conducting a LCA may allow a company to market their

product/process/service as environmentally friendly.

– LCA can enable the “the selection of relevant indicators of environmental

performance, including measurement techniques…” (ISO 14040:2006)
Life Cycle Analysis Framework
• The ISO 14040:2006 highlights the principles and
framework of a LCA.

• There are four main stages of conducting a LCA.

– Goal & Scope definition
– Inventory Analysis
– Impact Assessment (LCIA)
– Interpretation

• Following the completion of the above four stages,

Reporting and Critical Review phases are completed.
Life Cycle Analysis Framework

Information on
All what should be
phases included in each
are of these phases is
linked. give in ISO
14040:2006
Conducting Life Cycle Analysis
• ISO14040:2006 provides the principles and
framework for LCA’s

• The ISO 14044:2006 provides requirements

and guidelines for conducting a LCA.

• ISO 14071:2014 gives additional requirements

and guidelines related to the critical review
phase.
Life Cycle Analysis Limitations
• Time consuming

• Resource consuming

• The availability and quality of the data gathered

(and the use of any assumptions) can greatly
impact results.

• “LCA will not determine which product or process

is the most cost effective or works the best”
Life Cycle Analysis Example
• Life-Cycle Assessment of cofiring coal
with forest biomass for electricity
production in Chile:
– untreated pine pellets and
– torrefied-pretreated pine pellets
(Luis E. Arteaga-Pérez et al., 2015)

 Thermal process that involves heating

 Forest management and processing,
the biomass to temperatures 250-300 C generates approximately 4 million of
in an inert atmosphere. tonnes/year of woody residues
which is equivalent to 14,000
 When biomass is heated at such GWh/y of energy, enough to replace
temperatures, the moisture evaporates an important fraction (viz. 25%) of
and various low-calorific components the internal coal demand in Chile.
contained in the biomass are driven out
Life Cycle Analysis Example
Goal & Scope
Goals
– To compare the environmental impacts of introducing either treated or untreated
biomass pellets, produced from Chilean forest pine trees, into a coal fed electrical
power station.

– The composition of the biomass introduced as either treated or untreated pellets

would account for 20% for the feed to the burner.

Scope
– Functional Units (Two considered as two different comparisons)
• “One MJ of energy contained in the fuel, was used to compare the environmental
profiles of coal and non-pelletized torrefied biomass.”

• “One kWh of electricity at the power plant gate to compare the environmental
impacts of cofiring untreated and torrefied pine pellets for electricity generation in
the traditional coal-fired power plants.”
Life Cycle Analysis Example
– Impact Categories considered
– Abiotic depletion, Acidification, Eutrophication, Global
Warming, Ozone layer depletion, Human toxicity, Fresh
water aquatic eco-toxicity, Marine aquatic eco-toxicity,
Terrestrial eco-toxicity, Photochemical oxidation.

– Assumptions
• Hybrid experimental/model used to obtain information/data for torrefied
wood.

• Scale up of pilot plant obtained data.

• Changing the feed composition to the plant will not “significantly” impact
combustion efficiency.
Life Cycle Analysis Example
– System Boundaries
Life Cycle Analysis Example

Inventory Analysis

Obtaining Data
– Data & Process information collected from various sources;
• Hybrid experimental-modeling, scale up of pilot plant data,
literature, Mass balances, Aspen, Ecoinvent database, Google
Earth (for transport distances).
Life Cycle Analysis Example
• Inventory data relating to the first functional unit considered (for a
comparison between coal and torrefied none pellet pine wood).
Life Cycle Analysis Example
• Inventory data relating to the second functional unit considered (for a comparison
between 20% treated and 20% untreated pine wood pellets).
Life Cycle Analysis Example
Impact Assessment
• For the first functional unit considered. (Coal
compared to non pellet torrefied biomass)
Life Cycle Analysis Example
Life Cycle Analysis Example
• Energy production from cofiring coal/untreated wood pellets or
coal/torrefied pellets, featured significant reductions in
environmental impacts, as compared with pure coal plants

– acidification (28–26%)
– abiotic depletion (15–7%)
– eutrophication potential (15–12%)
– globalwarming potential (16–6%)
– Photochemical oxidation (28–23%)
– human toxicity (17–15%)
– terrestrial ecotoxicity (12–9%)
– marine aquatic ecotoxicit (17–15%)
Summary
• The need for renewable technologies has arrived.

• There will be a growth in biomass technology, which is most attractive in

the short term.

• There is a significant threat to the environment if biomass resources imply

expansion of agricultural activities in presently forested areas.

• Decisions must be based on Life cycle analysis rather than biased opinions
about biomass processes.

• In the longer term, waste materials, instead of food biomass, will be

sustainable.

• For the longer term, there is the solar energy conversion challenge.
Homework
• Prepare a presentation max 15 slides answering the following
questions;
– What are the current energy consumption figures in UK
– What are the CO2 emission figures in UK, is there any related UK
government act?
– Which sectors contribute most to CO2 emissions in UK
– What are UK targets for CO2 emissions?
– What are the good and bad scenarios in energy supply world for limiting
CO2 emissions?
– What will be the percentages of renewables in these scenarios?
– Summarize the advantages and challenges of biomass, wind and solar
energy each in one slide.
– Which equation/equations describe the Hubbert curve?
– Find commercial plants of Fischer-Tropsch and methanol to hydrocarbons.
Which countries are they installed? Which natural source are they using?
What is the simple process flow diagram? Which operation parameters are
used (temperature, pressure)?
Energy units
References
Books
• Alternative energy sources, Michaelides Efstathios, Springer, 2012
• Catalysis for alternative energy generation, László Guczi, András
Erdőhelyi, editors, Springer, 2012
• Biomass Conversion, Chinnappan Baskar, Shikha Baskar, Ranjit S. Dhillon,
Springer, 2012
• Introduction to Chemicals from Biomass, James H. Clark, Fabien
Deswarte, John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
• Catalysis for Renewables: From Feedstock to Energy Production, Gabriele
Centi, Rutger A. van Santen (Eds.), Wiley, 2008.
• Biogas from Waste and Renewable Resources, Dieter Deublein and
Angelika Steinhauser (Eds.), Wiley, 2008
• Thermochemical Processing of Biomass: Conversion into Fuels, Chemicals
and Power, Robert C. Brown, John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
• Biorefineries-Industrial Processes and Products: Status Quo and Future
Directions, Wiley, 2008.
References
Online resources
• http://www.iea.org/ : International energy agency
• http://www.shell.com/global/future-
energy/scenarios.html : Shell energy scenarios
• http://www.energy.gov/ : US department of energy
• http://www.eubia.org/ : EU biomass association