Abstract
Life-cycle analyses of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were carried out for three scenarios of the Coskata biomass-to-ethanol (EtOH) process under Chinese conditions using the original Tsinghua China Automotive Energy LCA Model in conjunction with a module developed particularly for the Coskata process. The results show that 1) the Coskata pathway has good performance in terms of life-cycle fossil energy use and GHG emissions; 2) the electricity used in the biomass-to-EtOH process has the most significant effect on life-cycle fossil-energy use, natural gas as boiler fuel has the second-greatest effect, while fuel used in feedstock transportation has the third; and 3) different energy resources for boilers in the biomass-to-EtOH factory provide different life-cycle results: coal is the least favorable while biomass is the most favorable. We conclude that 1) the Coskata pathway has the dual merits of fossil energy-savings and lower GHG emissions compared with all other bio-EtOH pathways and conventional gasoline in China; and 2) shifting from coal as the fuel for factory boilers to biomass will strengthen the advantages.
Highlights
The results show that 1) the Coskata pathway has good performance in terms of life-cycle fossil energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; 2) the electricity used in the biomass-to-Ethanol for Transportation FuelEthanol (EtOH) process has the most significant effect on life-cycle fossil-energy use, natural gas as boiler fuel has the second-greatest effect, while fuel used in feedstock transportation has the third; and 3) different energy resources for boilers in the biomass-to-EtOH factory provide different life-cycle results: coal is the least favorable while biomass is the most favorable
We conclude that 1) the Coskata pathway has the dual merits of fossil energy-savings and lower GHG emissions compared with all other bio-EtOH pathways and conventional gasoline in China; and 2) shifting from coal as the fuel for factory boilers to biomass will strengthen the advantages
Concluding Remarks The Coskata pathway has dual merits of energy savings and reduced GHG emissions compared with all other bio-EtOH pathways in China and gasoline
Summary
Ethanol (EtOH) is used globally as a fuel and fuel additive and serves as an alternative to gasoline. Government policy encourages the rational use of non-grain raw materials to produce fuel ethanol in the future: in the near-term, priority will be given to the production of fuel ethanol from non-grain feedstock, such as cassava, sweet potato, and sweet sorghum; in the long-term, cellulosic biomass-derived bio-. Lignocellulosic energy crops will account for about 80% of liquid fuel produced from energy crops in the long term in China. Besides bio-chemical processes and thermal-chemical processes, more efficient energy conversion technology, such as bio-gasification-fermentation, has been explored internationally. This is leading-edge technology in the production of liquid biofuels. A USbased company, has established a bio-gasification-fermentation demonstration plant [2,3]
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