A Life Cycle Assessment of an Energy-Biochar Chain Involving a Gasification Plant in Italy

Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a fundamental tool for evaluating the environmental and energy load of a production cycle. Its application to renewable energy production systems offers the possibility of identifying the environmental benefits of such processes—especially those related to the by-products of production processes (i.e., digestion or biochar). Biochar has received worldwide interest because of its potential uses in bioenergy production, due to its coproducts (bio-oil and syngas), as well as in global warming mitigation, sustainable agriculture, pollutant removal, and other uses. Biochar production and use of soil is a strategy for carbon sequestration that could contribute to the reduction of emissions, providing simultaneous benefits to soil and opportunities for bioenergy generation. However, to confirm all of biochar’s benefits, it is necessary to characterize the environmental and energy loads of the production cycle. In this work, soil carbon sequestration, nitrous oxide emissions, use of fertilizers, and use of water for irrigation have been considered in the biochar’s LCA, where the latter is used as a soil conditioner. Primary data taken from experiments and prior studies, as well as open-source available databases, were combined to evaluate the environmental impacts of energy production from biomass, as well as the biochar life cycle, including pre- and post-conversion processes. From the found results, it can be deduced that the use of gasification production of energy and biochar is an attractive strategy for mitigating the environmental impacts analyzed here—especially climate change, with a net decrease of about −8.3 × 103 kg CO2 eq. Finally, this study highlighted strategic research developments that combine the specific characteristics of biochar and soil that need to be amended.

The Eastern Mediterranean Charcoal Industry: Air Pollution Prevention by the Implementation of a New Ecological Retort System

“…The upper floor of the ERS system is the pyrolysis chamber, in which the wood is converted into charcoal. It is insulated to maintain the desired operating temperature with a nominal energy input inside the chamber (Marzeddu et al., 2021). The pyrolysis chamber base is a heat dispersion surface that is made of an iron mesh on which the raw woods are placed (Figure 3b), and above it there is a convex‐shaped metal tin plate that serves as a radiation reflector.…”

“…Charcoal has applications in addition to fuel or the steel industry, mostly with environmental benefits. Charcoal has been found to improve agricultural yields by decreasing the soil acidity (Lehmann et al., 2003; Shetty & Prakash, 2020) and providing nutrients and organic matter essential for plant growth (Marzeddu et al., 2021; O’Laughlin & McElligott, 2009; Singh & Cowie, 2010; Slavich et al., 2013; Soinne et al., 2020). It is also known to stabelize agriculture soil and prevent its degradation (Pandit et al., 2020).…”

Use of Typical Wastes as Biochars in Removing Diethyl Phthalate (Det) from Water

“…A wide range of fixed carbon (0-47.8%), volatile matter (28-74.1%), and ash contents (1.5-65.7%) were observed among tested biochars. A high variability in surface area (0.1-155.1 g/m 2 ) and PAH and heavy metal contents of the solid phase among commercially available biochars was also observed (0.7-83 mg kg −1 ), underscoring the importance of pre-screening biochars prior to application [29].…”

Adsorption characteristics and mechanisms of Cd2+ from aqueous solution by biochar derived from corn stover

“…Biochar (BC) is a carbon-rich material obtained by the pyrolysis of biomass raw materials under anoxic and oxygen-limited conditions 10 . BC is often used as an adsorbent due to its large specific surface area and abundant functional groups.…”