Environmental impacts of biomass-to-liquid gasification processes
The production of biofuels by gasification of biomass followed by a synthesis process (BtL-fuels) has been investigated with a life cycle assessment (LCA). The use of different types of biomass (wheat straw, miscanthus and short-rotation wood) has been considered. The LCA investigates the life cycle from seed to tank. The goal was to compare different production routes and show improvement options.
Different partners from the RENEW project supported this work with inventory data for biomass production and conversion technologies. Three automotive industry partners supervise the work on the LCA in a monitoring committee.
The environmental impacts have been investigated for several environmental themes including land and water use. Agricultural biomass production causes most of the environmental impacts in the life cycle. Thus the conversion efficiency biomass to fuel, which ranges between 26% and 69% is most important for comparing the different concepts. The efficiency does not only influence the biomass input. A low efficiency means also higher amounts of air emissions with off-gases and combustion emissions.
Publications
The LCA study has been elaborated within the following deliverables. All parts of the LCA have been reviewed according to the ISO 14040 standard:
Jungbluth, N. & Schmutz, S. 2007: Inventory dataset: EcoSpold/Gabi/Excel. Deliverable: D 5.2.9, ESU-services Ltd., Uster. (download of electronic data)
Jungbluth, N., Frischknecht, R., Faist Emmenegger, M., Steiner, R., Tuchschmid, M. 2007: Life Cycle Assessment of BTL-fuel production: Life Cycle Impact Assessment and Interpretation. Deliverable: D 5.2.10.
Jungbluth, N., Frischknecht, R., Faist Emmenegger, M., Steiner, R., Tuchschmid, M. 2007: Life Cycle Assessment of BTL-fuel production: Inventory Analysis. Deliverable: D 5.2.7.
Jungbluth, N., Frischknecht, R., Faist Emmenegger, M., Tuchschmid, M. 2007: Life Cycle Assessment of BTL-fuel production: Goal and Scope Definition (revised). Deliverable: D 5.2.2, ESU-services Ltd., Uster.
Jungbluth, N., Frischknecht, R., Faist Emmenegger, M. 2004: Review of LCA case studies for BTL-fuel production. Deliverable: D 5.2.1 ESU-services Ltd., https://www.renew-fuel.com, Uster.
Jungbluth, N., Frischknecht, R., Faist Emmenegger, M., Steiner, R., Tuchschmid, M., Schmutz, S. 2007: Life Cycle Assessment of BTL-fuel production: Final Report. Deliverable: D 5.2.15., ESU-services Ltd., Uster. (20 pages summary of all results)
First European Summer School on Renewable Motor Fuels with a lecture on LCA.
All LCA results were presented during the Second European Summer School on Renewable Motor Fuels.
In a follow-up project the use of BTL-fuels in passenger cars has been compared with fossil diesel over the full life cycle (well-to-wheel).
Commissioned by the European Commission, Federal Office for Education and Science (Bundesamt für Bildung und Wissenschaft) and Swiss Federal Office of Energy (Bundesamt für Energie).
Contact: Niels Jungbluth , Websitepage RENEW project (Renewable Fuels for Advanced Powertrains, Sixth Framework Programme: Sustainable Energy Systems): www.renew-fuel.com
