Decentralization of sustainable aviation fuel production in Brazil through Biomass-to-Liquids routes: A techno-economic and environmental evaluation

Abstract

The present study evaluated the influence of three strategies to improve the economic feasibility of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production through gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (GFT) of lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks in Biomass-to-Liquids (BtL) plants. Apart from the integration with sugarcane ethanol production and the use of economic incentives by the carbon credits market, we evaluated the decentralization of the production chain with fast pyrolysis (FP) units to densify the biomass into bio-oil, aiming to reduce feedstock transportation costs for biofuel production. These analysis made use of process simulation coupled with techno-economic assessment (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA).Carbon credits commercialization alone is not enough to enable the standalone GFT scenario with current prices (up to 30 US$/tonne CO2 eq avoided). However, integration into a 1G mill can decrease SAF production costs to as low as 0.4–0.7 US$/L and achieve over 70 g of CO2 eq avoided/MJ of SAF. The addition of the FP process for decentralization is a better option than a centralized production only for distances above 1,000 km. This is due to expenses with feedstock bio-oil being from 2 to 5 times higher than with the direct use of solid biomass. In conclusion, the path to make SAF production feasible lies in the integration with more mature routes and by relying on incentives from environmental policies, while the decentralization could help markets with highly disperse biomass availability.