Life-Cycle Assessment of Biorefineries

Edgard Gnansounou, Ashok Pandey

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780444635853
• eBook ISBN: 9780444635860
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

Life-Cycle Assessment of Biorefineries, the sixth and last book in the series on biomass-biorefineries discusses the unprecedented growth and development in the emerging concept of a global bio-based economy in which biomass-based biorefineries have attained center stage for the production of fuels and chemicals. It is envisaged that by 2020 a majority of chemicals currently being produced through a chemical route will be produced via a bio-based route. Agro-industrial residues, municipal solid wastes, and forestry wastes have been considered as the most significant feedstocks for such bio-refineries. However, for the techno-economic success of such biorefineries, it is of prime and utmost importance to understand their lifecycle assessment for various aspects. - Provides state-of-art information on the basics and fundamental principles of LCA for biorefineries - Contains key features for the education and understanding of integrated biorefineries - Presents models that are used to cope with land-use changes and their effects on biorefineries - Includes relevant case studies that illustrate main points

Chapter 1

Classification of Biorefineries Taking into Account Sustainability Potentials and Flexibility

E. Gnansounou*; A. Pandey^{† *} Bioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group (BPE), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
^† Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing, Mohali, Punjab, India

Abstract

Converting biomass into multiple products started several centuries ago. However, conceptualizing a biorefinery as portfolios of bioproducts and their associated interwoven processes, analogous to a petroleum refinery, dates only from a few decades ago. Biorefineries are now close to being a reality since a few existing facilities are already prefiguring the dream of widespread commercial plants. However, due to its attractiveness, the term biorefinery becomes a portmanteau word. Rigorous classifications are therefore required in order to improve the nomenclature of biorefinery concepts, facilities, and systems and make them more discernable. This chapter contributes to recent efforts toward classification of biorefineries, by considering sustainability potentials and flexibility as additional criteria besides feedstock, conversion, platforms, and final products. After analyzing the up-to-date classification system of biorefineries, additional criteria are proposed and discussed, considering the main drivers of the development and wide deployment of biorefineries into the market.

Keywords

Biorefineries; Biomass; Characterization; Classification; Sustainability; Flexibility

1.1 Introduction

Biomass is available in a variety of raw materials composed of interwoven compounds that can be fractionated for valorization into energy, intermediate and final products, such as food/feed, chemicals, and biomaterials. It is a feedstock suitable for multiple conversions including chemical, physical, thermal, biological, and biotechnological, and several combined processes. Due to the potential competition between alternative uses, biomass is at the crossroads of several debates related to food security, substitution for depleting fossil resources, reducing dependency on the limited number of fossil fuel–exporting countries, improving energy security by diversifying energy imports, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improving quality of air, soil and water, and avoiding deforestation. With regard to the complex relationships between these debates, the issues of biomass conversion into energy, materials, and chemicals have been in the spotlight during the last three decades, with changing perspectives depending on the levels of international prices of petroleum oil and fossil fuels.

During periods of soaring petroleum oil prices, environmental policies enhance incentives in favor of renewable energy, including biomass. However, at the same time issues related to food security and burdens on the environment retain attention, raising questions about which relevant trade-offs should be the focus in order to develop a sustainable biobased economy. When oil prices decrease, the efforts in favor of bioprocesses tend to slow down.

The concept of a biorefinery, due to its potential flexibility, has opportunely emerged as a relevant strategy for efficiently valorizing the services provided by biomass while minimizing burdens on the environment, creating new opportunities for social and economic development and adapting the biomass services expansion and operation to economic conjunctures. Sustainability is one of the core issues of biorefineries. That is why the International Energy Agency (IEA) considers biorefining to benefit sustainable utilization of biomass [1]. Therefore, Task Group 42 of the IEA defined the biorefinery concept as “the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of marketable products and energy.” The definition provided by the IEA is close to the one from the US Department of Energy (DOE): “A biorefinery is an overall concept of a processing plant where biomass feedstocks are converted and extracted into a spectrum of valuable products.” However, before being a defined concept, the term biorefinery was a metaphor for the petroleum refinery, where biomass is considered as a possible substitute for petroleum and capable of generating as many products as a petroleum refinery does. Most of the definitions of biorefineries emphasize the technological or industrial challenges. For the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), “a biorefinery is a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power, and value-added chemicals from biomass. The biorefinery concept is analogous to today’s petroleum refineries which produce multiple fuels and products from petroleum.” [2]. De Jong and Jungmeier [3] compared a petroleum refinery with a biorefinery and pointed out more heterogeneous feedstock and processes, a higher number of process types (e.g., chemical and biotechnological) in the case of biorefineries. The main drivers of the development and ma...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Classification of Biorefineries Taking into Account Sustainability Potentials and Flexibility
• Chapter 2: Fundamentals of Life Cycle Assessment and Specificity of Biorefineries
• Chapter 3: Life-Cycle Assessment of Agricultural Feedstock for Biorefineries
• Chapter 4: Life Cycle Assessment of Sugar Crops and Starch-Based Integrated Biorefineries
• Chapter 5: Life Cycle Assessment of Vetiver-Based Biorefinery With Production of Bioethanol and Furfural
• Chapter 6: Life Cycle Assessment of Thermochemical Conversion of Empty Fruit Bunch of Oil Palm to Bio-Methane
• Chapter 7: Life Cycle Assessment of Algal Biorefinery
• Chapter 8: Life Cycle Assessment and Land-Use Changes: Effectiveness and Limitations
• Chapter 9: Modeling Land-Use Change Effects of Biofuel Policies: Coupling Economic Models and LCA
• Chapter 10: Towards an Integrated Sustainability Assessment of Biorefineries
• Index