Abstract
Advanced biomass-based motor fuels and chemicals are becoming increasingly important to replace fossil energy sources within the coming decades. It is likely that the new biorefineries will evolve mainly from existing forest industry sites, as they already have the required biomass handling infrastructure in place. The main objective of this work is to assess the potential for increasing the profit margin from sawmill byproducts by integrating innovative downstream processes. The focus is on the techno-economic evaluation of an integrated site for biomass-based synthetic natural gas (bio-SNG) production. The option of using the syngas in a biomass-integrated gasification combined cycle (b-IGCC) for the production of electricity (instead of SNG) is also considered for comparison. The process flowsheets that are used to analyze the energy and material balances are modelled in MATLAB and Simulink. A mathematical process integration model of a typical Nordic sawmill is used to analyze the effects on the energy flows in the overall site, as well as to evaluate the site economics. Different plant sizes have been considered in order to assess the economy-of-scale effect. The technical data required as input are collected from the literature and, in some cases, from experiments. The investment cost is evaluated on the basis of conducted studies, third party supplier budget quotations and in-house database information. This paper presents complete material and energy balances of the considered processes and the resulting process economics. Results show that in order for the integrated SNG production to be favored, depending on the sawmill size, a biofuel subsidy in the order of 28–52 €/MWh SNG is required.
Highlights
Sweden has a large sawmill industry with an annual production capacity of about 16.1 million cubic meters of sawn wood in 2013 [1]
This paper presents complete material and energy balances of the considered processes and the resulting process economics
The energetic and economic perspectives were investigated regarding the integration of different different biomass gasification‐based technologies for upgrading sawmill by‐products on‐site
Summary
Sweden has a large sawmill industry with an annual production capacity of about 16.1 million cubic meters of sawn wood in 2013 [1]. Biomass utilization has been gaining interest as a means to achieve the targets related to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and to the increase of the share of renewables in the energy mix. Woody-biomass is one of the important renewable energy sources (RES) that are globally expected to play a major role in mitigating the dependence of modern society on fossil-based resources for household, industry and transportation energy use. There are, several problems associated with the different forms of RES, such as the uneven distribution of the resources around the globe, the insufficient availability of the resources (as long as the objective is to fulfill a significant share of the global primary energy demand according to the best conversion technology known today) and the difficulties with storing them (in the case of intermittent resources, such as solar and wind) [3].
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