The rapid development of the coal-to-olefins
industry in China
provides a way to synthesize ethylene and propylene besides conventional
petroleum refinery. However, its serious issues of fossil fuel and
water consumption and CO2 emission threaten the sustainability
of the natural environment as well as industrial society. This research
extended the previous design of biomass gasification-based methanol
synthesis to an efficient biomass-to-olefins (BTO) system for saving
fossil fuel, reducing CO2 emission, and improving the sustainability
of light olefins production. The BTO system was modeled using the
ASPEN PLUS software. By incorporating the DMTO-II olefins synthesis
as well as the dual-stage entrained flow biomass gasification, the
ethylene/propylene yield was increased to 0.24 t/t dry biomass with
an exergy efficiency of 58.4% for the system. The carbon uptake credit
of biomass feedstock resulted in a negative net CO2 emission
of −1.63 t/t olefins for this BTO system with a total cost
of 5919 CNY/t olefins (i.e., 870 USD/t). The biomass price had great
impact on the economic effectiveness of this BTO. It could only be
acceptable when the unit biomass delivered cost was less than 600
CNY/t in consideration of BTO’s contribution to environmental
benefits. The application of CO2 capture and sequestration
to this BTO would further reduce the net CO2 emission and
uncover an indirect approach to capture CO2 from the atmosphere.
In that, 85% CO2 capture was the most cost-effective choice
which led to an additional cost of 135 CNY/t CO2 (i.e.,
20 USD/t). Yet, policy-related subsidies for CO2 abatement
might offset this cost. In this circumstance, BTO could show great
environmental benefits as well as acceptable economic performances.