Life Cycle Assessment of bio-oil produced through lignocellulosic biomass liquefaction

16/11/2022

Over the past decade, global concerns about climate change have arisen, prompting interest in biomass-based goods, particularly, in the conversion of biomass into fuels. Thus, studies have been developed in biofuel produced through lignocellulosic biomass liquefaction. To assess the environmental impact of the production of this biofuel, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been conducted. Resorting to SimaPro software, the phases of transportation of feedstock, pre-treatment, and manufacturing process were considered. Additionally, the bio-oil's lower heating value (LHV) was calculated to know how much petcoke could be replaced by the bio-oil produced and introduced as environmental credits. A comparative environmental impact evaluation of hexane, heptane, cyclohexanol and user-defined 2-ethyl-hexanol as possible solvents used in the production of liquefied biomass, was performed to find a possible substitute for 2-ethyl hexanol in SimaPro. Additionally, tests were carried out on biomass sources (Eucalyptus and paper sludge) to study the influence of their composition. The data was provided by the company SECIL. The PEF and ReCiPe methodologies were used in calculating the global environmental impact. Comparing the fuels, it takes more amount of bio-oil to equal the LHV of petcoke, which is 21.06 and 15.7 Gj/ton for biomass from Eucalyptus and paper sludges, respectively. Through the analysed scenarios, the best eco-friendly case is the bio-oil from Eucalyptus with a mixture of the solvents 2-ethyl hexanol and glycerine in a proportion of 0.25:0.75, with a single environmental impact score of -1.35 mPt and 1.49 mPt for BATCH and continuous conditions, respectively when PEF was used.

Autores da comunidade :

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  A

  Ana Sofia Lucas Silva Reis Augusto

  ist198660

Orientadores desta instituição:

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  A

  Ana Catarina Gouveia Braz

  ist165019

chemical-engineering - Engenharia Química

por - Português

Instituto Superior Técnico