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1. Life cycle assessment of direct co-firing of torrefied and/or pelletised woody biomass with coal in The Netherlands

Author

Gijsbert Korevaar, Wiebren de Jong, Yash Joshi, and Georgios Archimidis Tsalidis

Subjects
Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, business.industry, Strategy and Management, Global warming, Environmental engineering, food and beverages, Biomass, Torrefaction, Pulp and paper industry, complex mixtures, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Renewable energy, Bioenergy, Biofuel, Coal, business, General Environmental Science, Renewable resource
Abstract

In this paper the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to evaluate the environmental benefits on global warming, acidification and photochemical oxidation potentials, of biomass direct co-firing with coal on a 20% energy input basis, when compared with coal-fired power generation in The Netherlands. The solid biofuel is produced from Dutch or Canadian forestry biomass via pelletisation, torrefaction or torrefaction and pelletisation. The results show that torrefied biomass co-firing chain can be considered the best option when Dutch biomass is utilised. The reduction is approximately 12% for global warming, 7% for acidification and 5% concerning photochemical oxidation potentials. Even when biomass is imported from Canada, this also results in substantial reduction regarding global warming potential, when compared to the reference case. Alternatively, co-firing of domestic biomass results in a better performance than Canadian biomass for all three impact categories. Therefore, concerning global warming all the suggested resources for co-firing result in environmental benefits compared to coal-fired power generation.

Published
2014

2. A decisional simulation-optimization framework for sustainable facility location of a biodiesel plant in Colombia.

Author

Costa, Yasel, Duarte, Alexandra, and Sarache, William

Subjects
*SUSTAINABILITY, *BIODIESEL fuels, *SUPPLY chains, *MATHEMATICAL models, *GLOBAL warming
Abstract

In this paper, we develop a decisional framework and a mathematical model for the sustainable design of biodiesel supply chain networks (BSCND). We consider a broad group of sustainable aims, i.e. standard economic goals (revenue and logistics costs of BSCND), environmental issues based on a biodiesel production life cycle assessment (LCA), and the social incidental aspects (e.g. crime control, political stability, and community attitude, among others). The framework begins with a simulation of the biodiesel production system, feeding later, with suitable input parameters and suitable solutions, and a macro-location model designed to establish the regional positioning of biofuel conversion plants. Optimal regions are used as initial feasible solution space for the proposed micro-location model. In this part of the framework, we introduce an adaptation of Extended Goal Programming to rank the best municipalities (definitive locations) emphasizing the social aspects under consideration. The framework application is set up in the following Colombian context: first generation biodiesel production from palm oil feedstock. Our computational results indicate that the Colombian city of Rionegro (in the Santader region) is the most sustainable location for a new biodiesel plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2017
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