CO2 abatement costs of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation by different biogas conversion pathways

Rehl, T.; Müller, Joachim

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.10.049

Cited by 51 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…In the corresponding reference scenarios, we reach system equivalence by considering two autonomous processes, the production of compost and its soil application, on the one hand, and the generation of energy from hard coal, on the other hand. This approach follows Rehl and Müller (2013), who compare a system of anaerobic digestion with a corresponding reference system of composting and fossil-energy generation. Sources: Own illustration, adapted from Rehl and Müller (2013: 17); Cherubini (2010Cherubini ( : 1569; Roberts et al (2010: 828); and NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (2007: 24).…”

Section: 21) Life-cycle Viewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) of Green Waste: An Environmental and Economic Assessment of HTC Coal in the Metropolitan Region of Berlin, Germany

Medick¹,

Teichmann

Kemfert

2017

SSRN Journal

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may AbstractBased on a life-cycle sustainability assessment and the calculation of carbon abatement costs, we quantify the greenhouse-gas emission reductions and costs if green waste in the metropolitan region of Berlin, Germany, is diverted from composting into the production of hydrothermally carbonized coal (HTC coal) that is used as a substitute for hard coal in the generation of electricity and heat. Depending on the geographical origin of the green waste, we specify an urban scenario, a rural-urban scenario, and a rural scenario. Approximately 302 kilogram (kg) of carbon-dioxide equivalents (CO2e) can be saved per megagram (Mg) of fresh-matter (FM) input in the urban scenario, 298 kg CO2e/Mg FM input in the rural-urban scenario, and 316 kg CO2e/Mg FM input in the rural scenario. All three scenarios combined can mitigate a total of 70,511 Mg CO2e per year. This corresponds to about 1.6% of Berlin's annual greenhouse-gas reduction targets over the 2005-2020 period. If only private costs are considered, the HTC scenarios are less profitable than their reference cases. However, the inclusion of emissionrelated damage costs has the potential to render them socially preferable. The respective thresholds for social desirability coincide with the carbon abatement costs, about 163 €/Mg CO2e in the urban scenario, 74 €/Mg CO2e in the rural-urban scenario, and 75 €/Mg CO2e in the rural scenario. The lower abatement costs in the latter two scenarios are due to HTC-coal co-firing in an existing power plant rather than mono-firing it in a newly built biomass power plant. This shows that a comparatively favorable use of HTC coal might be as a bridging technology. 1) IntroductionThe German government aims to cut the country's annual greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 40% by 2020, 55% by 2030, 70% by 2040, and 80-95% by 2050, relative to the 1990 level (BMWi and BMU 2010). One of the main mechanisms to reach these targets is to substitute fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar energy, and biomass. In the power sector, for example, Germany has the objective to raise the share of renewable energy sources in gross electricity consumption to 40-45% by 2025, 55-60% by 2035, and at least 80% by 2050 ( § 1 EEG 2017 as published in Bundesgesetzblatt 2016). 4 However, Germany largely relies on fluctuating renewables, especially wind and photovoltaics (Neuhoff et al. 2016). 5 In order to deal with the fluctuat...

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Section: 21) Life-cycle Viewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) of Green Waste: An Environmental and Economic Assessment of HTC Coal in the Metropolitan Region of Berlin, Germany

Medick¹,

Teichmann

Kemfert

2017

SSRN Journal

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“…Studies on GHG abatement costs for singular fuels and time-points, such as ethanol [16,17] and biogas [18], have been published. Studies on several usage options, but for single years are available, e.g., on conventional biofuels in South Africa [19] and on energetic usages of woody biomass in Austria [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative Greenhouse Gas Abatement Cost Competitiveness of Biofuels in Germany

et al. 2018

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Transport biofuels derived from biogenic material are used for substituting fossil fuels, thereby abating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Numerous competing conversion options exist to produce biofuels, with differing GHG emissions and costs. In this paper, the analysis and modeling of the long-term development of GHG abatement and relative GHG abatement cost competitiveness between crop-based biofuels in Germany are carried out. Presently dominant conventional biofuels and advanced liquid biofuels were found not to be competitive compared to the substantially higher yielding options available: sugar beet-based ethanol for the short-to medium-term least-cost option and substitute natural gas (SNG) for the medium to long term. The competitiveness of SNG was found to depend highly on the emissions development of the power mix. Silage maize-based biomethane was found competitive on a land area basis, but not on an energetic basis. Due to land limitations, as well as cost and GHG uncertainty, a stronger focus on the land use of crop-based biofuels should be laid out in policy.

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“…In fact in several studies can be found in energy policy literature which focus on the environmental performance of single [9] or multiple [10,11] biogas conversion technologies, in terms of carbon equivalent reduction. In many cases the assessment is done by comparing the use of different raw materials [12], biogas supply chain configurations [13] or biogas utilization pathways.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internalizing the external costs of biogas supply chains in the Italian energy sector

Patrizio

Leduc

Kraxner

2017

Energy

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OriginalInternalizing the external costs of biogas supply chains in the Italian energy sector In Italy biogas support schemes are being revised to allocate subsidies also to the production of biomethane. Energy policies should foster environmentally optimal solutions, especially because social acceptance issues often arise in the case of biogas. In this paper the external cost methodology is adopted to quantify the environmental impact of airborne emissions associated with biogas based energy vectors and their corresponding fossil alternatives. These are evaluated at supply chain level and incorporated in a spatially explicit optimization model. The study is applied to Northern Italy to compare the potential impact of alternative policy options. It is found that, while external costs of biogas based pathways are always lower than corresponding fossil fuel based pathways, differences are generally so small that policies based on internalization of external costs alone would not lead to further development of biogas based technologies. For all utilization pathways consideration of local externalities leads to a less favourable evaluation of biogas based technologies, which even results in external costs higher than fossil natural gas if biogas is allocated to local heating.

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CO2 abatement costs of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation by different biogas conversion pathways

Cited by 51 publications

References 11 publications

Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) of Green Waste: An Environmental and Economic Assessment of HTC Coal in the Metropolitan Region of Berlin, Germany

Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) of Green Waste: An Environmental and Economic Assessment of HTC Coal in the Metropolitan Region of Berlin, Germany

Relative Greenhouse Gas Abatement Cost Competitiveness of Biofuels in Germany

Internalizing the external costs of biogas supply chains in the Italian energy sector

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