Abstract
Converting biomass into jet fuel involves more than the core chemical process. The overall process includes the logistics of harvesting and transporting the biomass, handling and preparing the material for processing, and processing and disposal of waste. All of these activities contribute to cost. Controlling cost involves more than developing efficient process chemistry. Choice of feedstock also has a significant impact on process economics. We consider chemical conversion of paper from municipal solid waste as a feedstock for the production of jet fuel and diesel. Paper has a significantly higher cellulose content than raw lignocellulosic biomass such as corn stover, so it requires less pretreatment to convert it into hydrocarbons than lignocellulosic biomass. Our techno-economic analysis showed that the cost of converting paper waste into jet fuel is about $1.00/gal less than jet fuel produced from corn stover. Although the cost of recycling paper into jet fuel is less than producing it from corn stover, the process is not competitive with petroleum. We estimated a minimum selling price of $3.97/gal for paper-derived jet fuel. Our sensitivity studies indicated that the biggest economic obstacle is the cost of cellulose hydrolysis. Direct hydrogenation of paper to sugar alcohols combined with increased economy of scale could make recycling paper jet fuel competitive.
Highlights
In 2019, the US aviation industry consumed 636 million barrels or 3.8 EJ of fuel (US Energy Information Agency, 2021a)
The sugar alcohols undergo catalytic aqueous-phase reforming (APR), which is a complex set of reactions that produce hydrogen, carbon dioxide, light alkanes, oxygenated compounds (Cortright et al, 2002)
Because the glucose from cellulose constitutes a greater fraction of the total sugars produced, a jet fuel process with enzymatic hydrolysis of paper requires more cellulase than a process based on corn stover as well as the more if the chemical feedstocks needed to produce cellulase
Summary
In 2019, the US aviation industry consumed 636 million barrels or 3.8 EJ of fuel (US Energy Information Agency, 2021a). Producing hydrocarbon fuels from recycle paper instead of raw biomass reduces the capital investment and the operating costs. Cultivated forest biomass, such as the loblolly pine in the Southeastern US, is an important source of wood pulp (Gonzalez et al, 2011) and a possible source of lignocellulosic biomass for fuel production (US Department of Energy, 2016). We considered whether using recycle paper to produce fuels has any economic advantages over processes based on raw lignocellulosic biomass. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed conceptual design of a process for converting lignocellulosic biomass into naphtha and diesel fuel based on Blommel and Price’s patent and enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. Both processes require hydrogen, which is assumed to be supplied by an on-site steam reforming planted located on site
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