Decentralization of sustainable aviation fuel production in Brazil through Biomass-to-Liquids routes: A techno-economic and environmental evaluation
Graphical abstract
Introduction
The increase in atmospheric CO2 from 2019 to 2020 was higher than the average from the last decade despite the recent global crisis and restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The last seven years (2015–2021) were the warmest years on record [1] and, therefore, we need to change the way we produce, transport, and consume energy to maintain the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. However, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) [2], the technologies and routes already available are not enough to achieve this goal. Thus, much of the necessary reductions will come from technologies that are still at the demonstration or prototype stage. This is the case for the aviation sector [2], whose liquid fuels demand is projected to continue growing [3]. This scenario is aggravated by the scarcity of readily available fuel options to achieve carbon emissions neutrality by 2050. To achieve this goal, it is expected that at least 50 % of the fuel used in aviation by 2040 should be clean [2].
Although there are currently approved routes to produce low-emission Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), the most mature option - the Hydroprocessing of Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) – is not enough to supply the demand for SAF entirely [4]. Among the alternatives, the thermochemical Biomass-to-Liquids (BtL) path appears as a promising option [5]. The BtL pathway is particularly interesting thanks to the possibility of processing different kinds of feedstocks into a wide range of fuels [6]. This process usually is comprised of the gasification of biomass, followed by Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis to produce liquid fuels such as SAF, green diesel, and green gasoline. These fuels present similar characteristics to fossil fuels with the added benefit of lower emissions [7]. However, many airline companies are reluctant to incorporate SAF due to higher operational costs [5]. Large-scale implementation of gasification and FT conversion (GFT) processes is also hindered by high equipment costs [8] and the cost gap between fossil-based and biobased fuels [9]. As a consequence, many of the existing GFT plants are still at the demonstration stage [10].
Despite these setbacks, the key to achieving net zero emissions may lie in improving BtL technologies on a commercial scale [2]. In this sense, the creation of policies and government aid could help improve the competitiveness of biofuels. For instance, the ReFuelEU aviation initiative aims to enhance the uptake of SAF in Europe by enforcing fuel suppliers to distribute these fuels at European Union airports [11]. Another example is the Brazilian National Biofuels Policy (RenovaBio), which has created a market of carbon credits to incentivize fuel producers and distributors to adhere to biofuels, which will contribute to mitigating emissions from road to aviation transport sectors [12], [13].
Besides governmental aid, other measures can push the implementation of advanced biofuel production routes in the Brazilian context. In their study, Bressanin et al. [14] point out that the BtL route can benefit from integration with First-generation (1G) ethanol production process. The revenue from ethanol commercialization lowers the risk associated with high investment and operational costs. This observation was confirmed in another work [15] that found that the integration into a 1G mill could achieve the minimum internal rate of return required for this type of investment (at least 12 % per year).
Increasing the nameplate capacity of BtL plants improves their feasibility, but the gains from scaling up are limited due to increased feedstock costs and longer transportation distances [16]. However, these setbacks can be overcome by improving biomass productivity with different harvesting technologies, densifying the biomass to lower transportation costs, and using transportation with different logistics configurations [17]. Lower-scale decentralized units can be implemented near feedstock production sites, inducing lower costs in feedstock transportation and handling for this production chain [18].
The use of fast pyrolysis (FP) as a biomass densification method could be advantageous since bio-oil is an intermediate of higher energy density than biomass, which could reduce transportation costs [19]. Unlike gasification and FT plants, FP units can be economically viable on relatively smaller scales [20], thus being well suited for this application.
The present work aims at evaluating the production of SAF through the GFT route, by considering the main possible implementation strategies in the Brazilian sugarcane industry. This study highlights the influence of the existing sugarcane infrastructure along with an ongoing incentive policy (RenovaBio) based on the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity performance of the biofuel produced. The novelty of the present paper comes from considering the integration of the main route – gasification/FT conversion and the Brazilian sugarcane sector based on biochemical platforms – with the implementation of pyrolytic units for biomass densification as a way to improve economic and environmental performance. The goal is to assess these different strategies both in terms of economic and environmental performance (through techno-economic analysis – TEA, and life cycle assessment – LCA, respectively). The integration, decentralization, and the use of incentive policies are evaluated to increase SAF feasibility. Thus, this study may assist the global effort of pinpointing more sustainable solutions and verifying scenarios in which BtL biofuels could compete and substitute fossil aviation kerosene.
Section snippets
Scenarios description
The first configuration for SAF production consists of a GFT plant integrated into a first-generation ethanol distillery (1G mill). This scenario, called “Scenario 1”, was presented in a previous study [10]. The sugarcane mill operates during the sugarcane season (200 days/year) processing biomass to obtain hydrous ethanol through fermentation of sugars. The straw collected on the field and the bagasse produced during the juice extraction are directed to an integrated thermochemical plant that
Feedstock production
The CanaSoft model allowed us to calculate the production costs and emissions associated with the harvesting of sugarcane stalks and straw. Fig. 2 presents these results and the range of values associated with the variation of the sugarcane yield (as described in section 2.7). These results are only related to the production/harvesting, disregarding the transportation of these materials. The costs and impacts of transporting these biomass materials are calculated on the evaluation of each
Conclusions
The use of the thermochemical route of biomass GFT to produce renewable and clean jet fuel presented promising results to help achieve the directives of net zero emissions by 2050. However, even with around 80 g CO2 eq avoided per MJ of SAF produced, a standalone plant processing lignocellulosic biomasses still is not economically viable, achieving IRR values below 10 % per year. With lower return on investment (negative net present values), such a configuration is not yet attractive for
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Henrique Real Guimarães: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Jéssica Marcon Bressanin: Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Ingrid Lopes Motta: Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Mateus Ferreira Chagas: Methodology,
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was possible thanks to funding by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), grant number 88882.435527/2019-01 and 88887.489988/2020-00.
This research was performed by ILM as part of the “Pesquisador Colaborador” program of the University of Campinas.
This research was performed using the facilities and infrastructure of LNBR—Brazilian Biorenewables National Laboratory (CNPEM/MCTIC).
This research was also supported by São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP
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