Different governance mechanisms have emerged to ensure biomass and bioenergy sustainability amidst a myriad of related public and private regulations that have existed for decades. We conducted a global survey with 59 questions which examined 192 stakeholders' views and experiences related to (1) the multi‐leveled governance to which they are subjected, (2) the impacts of that governance on bioenergy production and trade, and (3) the most urgent areas for improvement of certification schemes. The survey revealed significant support along the whole supply chain for new legislation which uses market‐based certification schemes to demonstrate compliance (co‐regulation). Some respondents did not see a need for new regulation, and meta‐standards is a promising approach for bridging divergent views, especially if other proof than certification will be an option. Most respondents had so far experienced positive or neutral changes to their bioenergy production or trade after the introduction of new sustainability governance. Legislative requirements and a green business profile were important motivations for getting certified, while lack of market advantages, administrative complexity and costs all were barriers of varying importance. A need to include, e.g., regular standard revision and dealing with conflicting criteria was identified by respondents associated with bioenergy schemes. Respondents associated with forestry schemes saw less need for revisions, but some were interested in supply chain sustainability criteria. Significant differences among schemes suggest it is crucial in the future to examine the tradeoffs between certification costs, schemes' inclusiveness, the quality of their substantive and procedural rules, and the subsequent effectiveness on‐the‐ground. WIREs Energy Environ 2016, 5:89–118. doi: 10.1002/wene.166 This article is categorized under: Bioenergy > Climate and Environment
Abstract Sugarcane is currently the main renewable energy source in Brazil. Due to the importance of the cane industry and its contribution to a wide range of biobased energy and other products, LCA studies regarding cane‐derived products are needed to assess their environmental benefits. The main objective of this work was the assessment of life cycle energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to cane sugar and ethanol, considering bagasse and electricity surpluses as coproducts. We performed an overall balance for the Brazilian Center‐South Region, adopting different methods to evaluate sugar and ethanol production separately. The GREET 1.8c.0 model was used for the ‘well‐to‐wheels’ calculations but adapted to the comprehensive set of Brazilian parameters that best represent the Center‐South Region. For the reference case, fossil energy use and GHG emissions related to sugar production were evaluated as 721 kJ/kg and 234 g CO 2 eq/kg, respectively. For the ethanol life cycle, these values were 80 kJ/MJ and 21.3 g CO 2 eq/MJ. Special attention was paid to the variation of some parameters among producing units based on data collected by industry. The consequent uncertainties in ethanol life cycle emissions were assessed through a Monte Carlo analysis based on assigned distribution of probability curves for eleven selected parameters and informed by partial statistical data available from industry for distribution generation. Projections were also made for 2020 scenario parameters based on the best in current class technologies and technological improvements deemed commercially possible today. Published in 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Petrobras have worked closely to develop process models and analysis approaches to assess the economic feasibility of co-processing bio-oils (pyrolysis oils) with fossil feedstocks in petroleum refinery unit operations. Petrobras conducted co-processing experiments with pine-derived bio-oils and Brazilian vacuum gasoil (VGO) at typical operating conditions on their 200 kg/h demonstration-scale fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit. NREL evaluated the experimental yield data and developed novel modeling approaches to simulate and optimize co-processing scenarios. Within the uncertainties of measurements and the simplified refinery models used, the process modeling and techno-economic analysis (TEA) results identify conditions in which co-processing bio-oils could be economically feasible for the case of refiners purchasing VGO, expanding prior work demonstrating technical feasibility. TEA scenarios show a high potential for bio-oil co-processing to be economically attractive for petroleum refiners for benchmark crude oil prices at $70 (U.S. dollars) per barrel using up to 5 wt% bio-oil produced with typical fast pyrolysis technology (≤400 t/d) fed with dried pine chips. For oil prices per barrel of $55–$60, up to 10 wt% bio-oil could be co-processed profitably if produced in pyrolysis plants performing at an "nth-plant" level, feeding 2,000 t/d with dried pine chip feedstocks producing bio-oil at $48–$56 per barrel from feedstock ranging from $99-$132 per t ($90–$120 per ton). Alternatively, low-price biomass feedstocks could make bio-oil co-processing viable at lower oil prices in both cases.
Expanding the domestic bioeconomy can help diversify the use of national resources and reduce emissions. Evaluating the sustainability of a growing bioeconomy, however, is inherently complex since it spans several sectors and supply chains. It requires a comprehensive, integrated analysis framework to assess the developments across the traditional sustainability dimensions. Further, the assessment of bioeconomy developments requires a robust baseline of historic data and trends. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of the biofuel portion of the US bioeconomy, focusing on two fuels that had an exponential growth in the last two decades: corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel. For this purpose, we created a novel time series of harmonized environmentally-extended input-output (EEIO) tables based on a publicly available model from the US Environmental Protection Agency and expanded its disaggregation to reflect the main supply chains of the biofuels sectors. The EEIO time series provides the historical evolution of these biofuels relative to the rest of the economy as well as on an energy-unit basis. We find that, except for energy use, the broader US economy declined in both resource intensity and most environmental impacts when normalized per one million dollars of gross domestic product. Deviating from this trend are freshwater ecotoxicity and human toxicity, mainly attributable to the expansion of commodity crops and the increase of domestic oil and gas extraction respectively. We also find that the biofuel industry's total socioeconomic, resource use and environmental impacts grew with their production increases over time. However, the industry's maturation and scale-up, combined with higher feedstock yields, contributed to a reduction of most impacts on an energy-unit basis over time.
Raw bio-oil produced from fast pyrolysis of pine woodchips was co-processed with standard Brazilian vacuum gasoil (VGO) and tested in a 200 kg⋅h−1 fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) demonstration-scale unit using a commercial FCC equilibrium catalyst. Two different bio-oil/VGO weight ratios were used: 5/95 and 10/90. Co-processing of raw bio-oil in FCC was shown to be technically feasible. Bio-oil could be directly co-processed with a regular gasoil FCC feed up to 10 wt%. The bio-oil and the conventional gasoil were cracked into valuable liquid products such as gasoline and diesel range products. Most of the oxygen present in the bio-oil was eliminated as water and carbon monoxide as these yields were always higher than that of carbon dioxide. Product quality analysis shows that trace oxygenates, primarily alkyl phenols, in FCC gasoline and diesel products are present with or without co-processing oxygenated intermediates. The oxygenate concentrations increase with co-processing, but have not resulted in increased concerns with quality of fuel properties. The presence of renewable carbon was confirmed in gasoline and diesel cuts through 14C isotopic analysis, showing that renewable carbon is not only being converted into coke, CO, and CO2, but also into valuable refining liquid products. Thus, gasoline and diesel could be produced from lignocellulosic raw materials through a conventional refining scheme, which uses the catalytic cracking process. The bio-oil renewable carbon conversion into liquid products (carbon efficiency) was approximately 30%, well above the efficiency found in literature for FCC bio-oil upgrading.
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