Assessment of Feedstocks and Technologies for Advanced Biofuel Production

Abstract

The present contribution deals with a comprehensive analysis of the available feedstocks and the appropriate technologies to produce advanced biofuels. The analysis is focused on the EU countries, since they adopted policy measures able to promote advanced biofuels as a strategic solution for a competitive and sustainable transport sector. In this regard, four classes of feedstocks have been taken into account: wastes, vegetable oils, agricultural and forestry residues. Their availability is studied with the aim to respect the European targets in terms of emissions without neglecting possible negative impacts on environment and biodiversity. A metric for the classification of the different solutions is proposed on the basis of feedstocks availability, technology readiness levels (TRL), quality of the produced biofuel as well as feedstock and production costs. It is possible to conclude that, even if the several interesting alternatives currently available have a high ranking in the proposed metric and must be taken in consideration, green diesel is today the most convenient solution for producing advanced biofuel without risks of technological failures and feedstocks shortage. This analysis can provide insights to encourage the development of advanced biofuels in EU, especially for some of the Member States as Germany, France and Italy.

Biofuels for Maritime Transportation: A Spatial, Techno-Economic, and Logistic Analysis in Brazil, Europe, South Africa, and the USA

“…In all regions, the highest biofuel production volumes were observed for HDPO. Notwithstanding, HDPO has not achieved commercial stage and is less mature than other biofuel technologies (Figure 21) [88][89][90][91][92][93]. Thus, investing in technologies that are closer to the commercialization stage in the near-to mid-term, may accelerate the uptake of maritime biofuels, despite their lower yields.…”

Biomass and Energy Production: Thermochemical Methods

“…It must be noticed that each mentioned process of bioenergy production is placed in a certain level of technical maturity as briefly demonstrated in the Figure 3 [114][115][116]. The maturity level of each technic is represented by a term which is called technical readiness level (TRL) and it is divided from lab scale (1-3), pilot-scale (4-6) to the highest level of maturity which is proven, tested, and qualified all parameters with a full commercial plant and industrialized scale (6)(7)(8)(9) to produce products for public usage [114].…”

Biomass, Biorefineries and Bioeconomy

“…The hydrogen conversion from the methane commonly through the conversion system such as SRM [37,[110][111][112], DRM [113,114], CDM [115,116], and POM [117,118]. The SRM was widely used in industrial applications with a high theoretical H 2 /CO ratio and its efficiency with low operational and production costs.…”

“…The CDM also could produce nanocarbon material by carbon sequestration which forms a stable solid. Even though it looks promising, the CDM is still in lab level experiment which is necessary for catalyst deactivation, unreacted methane in out-stream with low purity nano-carbon, and the catalyst regeneration produced the secondary emission [114,116,121].…”

“…It must be noticed that each mentioned process of bioenergy production is placed in a certain level of technical maturity as briefly demonstrated in the Figure 3 [114][115][116]. The maturity level of each technic is represented by a term which is called technical readiness level (TRL) and it is divided from lab scale (1-3), pilot-scale (4-6) to the highest level of maturity which is proven, tested, and qualified all parameters with a full commercial plant and industrialized scale (6-9) to produce products for public usage [114].…”