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Dissertation
Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Evaluation of Emerging Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Products with Consideration of Temporal Effects on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2014
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-7028
Abstract
Biofuels, energy derived from biomass, have been proposed as alternative low carbon fuels that have the potential to provide energy security, economic opportunities and possibly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation and energy sector. This dissertation investigates the environmental, economic, social sustainability and time implications of reducing GHG emissions of alternative applications of co-products of the biorefinery by either land amending this carbon rich material to mitigate soil carbon loss or recovering its energy. First study shows that cofiring the lignin co-product of the lignocellulosic biorefinery with coal or land amending it can hugely reduce GHG emissions while cofiring helps the economics of the biorefinery and land amendment can be a sustainable cropping approach. Moreover, on-site energy recovery of the co-product has the lowest operating cost and the highest GHG emission. The second study discusses the time aspects of the GHG emissions of alternative soil management strategies within the biofuel production life cycle. Variable soil emissions result in distinct system emission profiles. Results declare that, neglecting timing of the emissions and failing to consider all related soil emissions result in some minor and major accounting errors. In the third study, opportunities of small scale pyrolysis oil production for displacing heavy fuel oil for electricity generation are discussed with two alternative applications of bio-char co-product as an energy source and soil amendment. This study shows that with implementing either scenarios pyrolysis bio-oil can offer near-term GHG and energy savings while being competitive with petroleum fuel oil in electricity markets. The last study of this thesis reviews and emphasizes the importance of social sustainability considerations in biofuel systems. This study evaluates the abatement cost of replacing fuel oil with small scale produced bio-oil and states that local market competitiveness, awareness of the consumers of the environmental and social benefits of co-products and presence of policy instruments could favor one of the co-product applications over the other. This thesis demonstrates that life cycle approach is useful for analyzing and comparing different bioenergy systems, and is capable of providing insights into tradeoffs necessary in decision making for the development of bioenergy systems.
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Details
- Title
- Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Evaluation of Emerging Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Products with Consideration of Temporal Effects on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Creators
- Ghasideh Pourhashem FakharLangeroudi - DU
- Contributors
- Sabrina Spatari (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xix, 218 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Civil (and Architectural) Engineering [Historical]; College of Engineering (1970-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 7028; 991014632511604721