Publication
Title
Geospatial environmental techno-economic assessment of pretreatment technologies for bioethanol production
Author
Abstract
Second-generation biofuels, starting from lignocellulosic biomass, are considered as a renewable alternative for fossil fuels with lower environmental impact and potentially higher supply and energy security. The economic and environmental performance of second-generation bioethanol production from corn stover in the European Union (EU) is studied, starting in Belgium as base case. A comparative environmental techno-economic assessment has been conducted, with process simulations in Aspen Plus and corn stover availability data in thirteen EU countries to calculate minimum ethanol selling prices (MESP) and Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe). In this analysis, the emphasis is on the comparison of different pretreatment technologies, namely (i) dilute acid, (ii) alkaline, (iii) steam explosion and (iv) liquid hot water. Dilute acid showed the best economic and environmental performance for the base case scenario. Within the EU, Hungary and Romania presented the lowest MESP for the steam explosion model at 0.39 and 0.43 EUR/L respectively. Poland showed the lowest GHGe, at 0.46 kg CO2eq/L for the alkaline model, mainly due to the avoided product allocation on electricity and its high carbon intensity in the electricity generation sector. The second lowest GHGe were obtained in France for the dilute acid model and are attributed to its low agricultural emissions intensity. This study identifies a location-dependence of the economic and environmental performance of pretreatment technologies, which can be extrapolated from the EU to other large regions around the world and should be taken into consideration by decision-makers.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Renewable and sustainable energy reviews. - Oxford, 1997, currens
Publication
Oxford : Elsevier Science , 2023
ISSN
1364-0321 [print]
1879-0690 [online]
DOI
10.1016/J.RSER.2023.113743
Volume/pages
187 (2023) , p. 1-16
Article Reference
113743
ISI
001082526000001
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
The author-created version that incorporates referee comments and is the accepted for publication version Available from 14.09.2024
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
GOPRESUSE – Towards generic optimizations and prospective evaluations for the design of sustainable disruptive process technologies and resource management systems by connecting statistical entropy, economic and environmental aspects.
ADV_BIO: Technological innovation in the production of advanced biofuels applicable to the Belgian territory for road and air transport and technical, economic and environmental analyses
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 15.09.2023
Last edited 01.07.2024
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