Techno-economic analysis of transportation fuels from defatted microalgae via hydrothermal liquefaction and hydroprocessing

Ou, Longwen; Thilakaratne, Rajeeva; Brown, Robert C.; Wright, Mark M.

doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.11.018

Cited by 150 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Therefore, a techno-economic analysis (TEA) across different platforms is needed in order to determine the most suitable pathway under given market conditions to avoid investing in enterprises with high commercialization risk. TEA can be used to understand and compare the profitability and breakdown cost for any project, therefore, it has been applied to many biorenewable systems such as corn ethanol production (Ou et al, 2014), gasification , pyrolysis (Zhang et al, 2013), and hydrothermal liquefaction (Ou et al, 2015). TEA of catalytic fast pyrolysis has received growing interest in recent years in particular.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techno-economic and uncertainty analysis of in situ and ex situ fast pyrolysis for biofuel production

Dang

et al. 2015

Bioresource Technology

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This study evaluates the techno-economic uncertainty in cost estimates for two emerging technologies for biofuel production: in situ and ex situ catalytic pyrolysis. The probability distributions for the minimum fuel-selling price (MFSP) indicate that in situ catalytic pyrolysis has an expected MFSP of $1.11 per liter with a standard deviation of 0.29, while the ex situ catalytic pyrolysis has a similar MFSP with a smaller deviation ($1.13 per liter and 0.21 respectively). These results suggest that a biorefinery based on ex situ catalytic pyrolysis could have a lower techno-economic uncertainty than in situ pyrolysis compensating for a slightly higher MFSP cost estimate. Analysis of how each parameter affects the NPV indicates that internal rate of return, feedstock price, total project investment, electricity price, biochar yield and bio-oil yield are parameters which have substantial impact on the MFSP for both in situ and ex situ catalytic pyrolysis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techno-economic and uncertainty analysis of in situ and ex situ fast pyrolysis for biofuel production

Dang

et al. 2015

Bioresource Technology

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“…More recently, thermochemical processes, such as hydrothermal liquefaction and hydrothermal gasification, have been proposed to produce biocrude and syngas from algae . However, the high cost of lipid extraction, high amount of unsaturated fatty acids in biodiesels and severe operating conditions required for thermochemical processes hinder commercialization of these technologies . In addition, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have shown that high consumption of fertilizer to meet the nutrient requirements for microalgae cultivation can lead to heavy environmental impacts .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal pretreatment of microalgae for biomethane production: experimental studies, kinetics and energy analysis

Wang

Lee

Dilbeck

et al. 2016

J of Chemical Tech & Biotech

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BACKGROUND Microalgae grown on wastewater are promising feedstocks for biomethane production by anaerobic digestion. However, the hemicellulose composition of the microalgae cell wall inhibits hydrolysis of intracellular substances and limits their anaerobic digestibility. This study investigated enhancement of biomethane production rates during anaerobic digestion of Chlorella sp. using thermal pretreatment at varying temperatures. Experimental data were fitted to three simplified kinetic models and an energy analysis was performed to gain insights into this potential application of thermal pretreatment. RESULTS Methane yields from untreated algae were 155 mL g−1 VSadd, while thermal pretreatment at 70 °C and 90 °C for 0.5 h increased the methane yield by 37% and 48%, respectively. Thermal pretreatment at 121 °C for 0.3 h resulted in the highest methane yield (322 mL g−1 VSadd), which is 108% higher than the untreated algae. Data from digestion of thermally pretreated microalgae were best described by a first‐order kinetic model. However, for untreated microalgae the Gompertz model, which includes a lag phase, provided the best fit to the methane production data. CONCLUSIONS Thermal pretreatment improved the maximum methane production rate and shortened the lag period during anaerobic digestion. However, the energy balance indicated that pretreatment of microalgae could not achieve a positive energy balance compared with anaerobic digestion of untreated microalgae. Co‐digestion with other biomass or increasing the solids concentration of anaerobic digestion could be used to increase the overall energy efficiency. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry

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“…Approximately 90% of the aqueous phase is recycled back to the softener, where it comes in contact with the biomass so as to obtain the desired wt% of biomass into the incoming stream. A part of the aqueous phase comprising water with small amounts of dissolved organics is directed to a waste‐water treatment facility, as the aqueous phase does not have enough organics present for further recovery, from an economics point of view . The waste‐water facility is assumed to use anaerobic digestion to convert aqueous organics into carbon dioxide and methane.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass for the production of diluents for bitumen transport

Kumar

Oyedun

Kumar

2017

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

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This study explores the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of wood chips to biocrude followed by upgrading to diluents, which are used to transport bitumen through pipelines. In this study, we considered a 2000 dry t day−1 plant capacity with two scenarios. The first scenario uses hydrogen for upgrading from the on‐site hydrogen production plant (i.e., the hydrogen production scenario) and the other relies on procuring hydrogen from an external source (i.e., the hydrogen purchase scenario). We developed a data‐intensive process model for HTL and used it to estimate plant capital costs. Project investment costs for the hydrogen production and hydrogen purchase scenarios are 559.67 and 429.13 M $, respectively. The product values (PV) of the diluent from the two scenarios are 0.98 ± 0.03 and 0.79 ± 0.03 $ L−1, respectively, at a 95% confidence interval. The sensitivity analysis shows that diluent yield and internal rate of return (IRR) have the highest impact on the PV of the diluent, followed by capital cost and biomass cost. The optimum plant size at which the cost of production is lowest is 4000 dry t day−1 for PVs of 0.82 $ L−1 and 0.68 $ L−1 for the hydrogen production and purchase scenarios, respectively. This study offers insights into the techno‐economic feasibility of producing diluents from HTL. The results of the study could help in the production of diluents for bitumen transportation for the oil sands industry and help reduce the overall greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of the oil and gas sector. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Techno-economic analysis of transportation fuels from defatted microalgae via hydrothermal liquefaction and hydroprocessing

Cited by 150 publications

References 46 publications

Techno-economic and uncertainty analysis of in situ and ex situ fast pyrolysis for biofuel production

Techno-economic and uncertainty analysis of in situ and ex situ fast pyrolysis for biofuel production

Thermal pretreatment of microalgae for biomethane production: experimental studies, kinetics and energy analysis

Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass for the production of diluents for bitumen transport

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