Issue 8, 2020

Sustainable development of biorefineries: integrated assessment method for co-production pathways

Abstract

Biorefining is a promising technology for coproducing bioenergy and bioproducts to increase the benefit and sustainability relative to petroleum-driven products. Although several feasibility studies with certain valuations or materials have been conducted, a thorough analysis of the integration of bio-base products with sustainable bioenergy production is needed. This study conducts a comprehensive investigation of recently published feasibility studies on biorefining. Five challenges are found to be particularly important: system boundaries, technological level, allocation, environmental concerns, and uncertainty. A case study on 10 biorefinery pathways to bioproducts integrated with bioethanol (bioEtOH) is examined via a coincident feasibility assessment that concentrated on the proposed issues, as well as on certain technological, economic, and environmental aspects. When 25% of bioEtOH was replaced by furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), 15.3–16.7 MJ of FDCA per gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) of bioEtOH is produced, leading to economic mitigation potentials of US$2.40–2.48 per GGE.

Graphical abstract: Sustainable development of biorefineries: integrated assessment method for co-production pathways

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Analysis
Submitted
13 mar 2020
Accepted
07 máj 2020
First published
07 máj 2020

Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 2233-2242

Sustainable development of biorefineries: integrated assessment method for co-production pathways

J. Byun and J. Han, Energy Environ. Sci., 2020, 13, 2233 DOI: 10.1039/D0EE00812E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements