Techno‐economics of the production of mixed alcohols from lignocellulosic biomass via high‐temperature gasification

Abstract

This techno-economic study investigates the production of mixed alcohols from lignocellulosic biomass using an entrained flow slagging gasifier. Similar analyses for 2000 dry tonne per day plants have been performed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory using indirect, and direct dry ash gasifiers. The use of a high-temperature entrained flow gasifier differs from the previous studies because it eliminates equipment for tar and methane reformation. The conversion targets for tar reforming in the previous studies, and for alcohol synthesis in all of the studies, are based on DOE's research goals for 2012. The conversion cost increased compared to both of the previous studies, assuming the achievement of the 2012 research targets. Feed handling, high oxygen demand, and a high gasifier capital cost are primarily responsible for the high cost projected by this study. It is understood that the achievement of research targets, maturity, reliability, relative complexities, and redundancy requirements will be the other keys to commercialization. The effect of key assumptions and uncertainties were evaluated using sensitivity analysis.

An Approach to Identify the Suitable Plant Location for Miscanthus-Based Ethanol Industry: A Case Study in Ontario, Canada

“…The production cost is dependent on the conversion technology, enzyme loading, feedstock, allocation methods, and plant sizes [21,24]; thus, production costs may vary, if different conversion methods, allocation, and plant sizes are considered. Although the cost of lignocellulosic ethanol is reported to be vary widely [22,24,[49][50][51][52], the production costs estimated in this study are found to be reasonable and comparable with other studies. …”

“…A wide variation in ethanol yield from Miscanthus [39,[44][45][46], feedstock, and enzyme cost are also stated [50,53]. The potential hotspots are identified to be feedstock, pre-treatment, and fixed cost in case of energy consumption, emission, and production cost, respectively.…”

A Review of Life Cycle of Ethanol Produced from Biosyngas

“…A wide variation of production cost was also reported by several authors where the lignocellulosic ethanol production by thermochemical gasification processes were modeled (most of the studies modeled with Aspen Plus software) to estimate the production cost. The production cost varied from 0.27-1.25 $/L [24,66,75,[78][79][80][81][82]100]. The feedstock and capital cost are identified to be main hotspots [80,82].…”

“…The production cost varied from 0.27-1.25 $/L [24,66,75,[78][79][80][81][82]100]. The feedstock and capital cost are identified to be main hotspots [80,82]. Although most of the theoretical studies (modeled with Aspen Plus software) noted that the thermochemical conversion of lignocellulosic …”

Techno-economic assessment of biomass-to-ethanol by indirect fluidized bed gasification: Impact of reforming technologies and comparison with entrained flow gasification

“…Techno-economic assessments of the thermochemical production of ethanol from biomass gasification and catalytic synthesis have been published [1][2][3][4][5][6]. These works assumed a KCoMoS 2 catalyst with a target performance to be achievable in the short term [1].…”