Life Cycle Costs and Life Cycle Assessment for the Harvesting, Conversion, and the Use of Switchgrass to Produce Electricity

This paper considers both LCA and LCC of the pyrolysis of switchgrass to use as an energy source in a conventional power plant. The process consists of cultivation, harvesting, transportation, storage, pyrolysis, transportation, and power generation. Here pyrolysis oil is converted to electric power through cocombustion in conventional fossil fuel power plants. Several scenarios are conducted to determine the effect of selected design variables on the production of pyrolysis oil and type of conventional power plants. The set of design variables consist of land fraction, land shape, the distance needed to transport switchgrass to the pyrolysis plant, the distance needed to transport pyrolysis oil to electric generation plant, and the pyrolysis plant capacity. Using an average agriculture land fraction of the United States at 0.4, the estimated cost of electricity from pyrolysis of 5000 tons of switchgrass is the lowest at $0.12 per kwh. Using natural gas turbine power plant for electricity generation, the price of electricity can go as low as 7.70 cent/kwh. The main advantage in using a pyrolysis plant is the negative GHG emission from the process which can define that the process is environmentally friendly.

• Publication year

  2013

• Venue

  International Journal of Chemical Engineering

• Publication date

  2013-09-23

• Fields of study

  Engineering, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1155/2013/492058
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Advanced bio-fuels from pyrolysis oil: The impact of economies of scale and use of existing logistic and processing capabilities

  2012cited by this paper
• Thermodynamic modelling of co-firing coal and biomass pyrolysis gas in a power plant

  2011cited by this paper
• Life cycle assessment of electricity generation using fast pyrolysis bio-oil

  2011cited by this paper
• LCA of a biorefinery concept producing bioethanol, bioenergy, and chemicals from switchgrass

  2010cited by this paper
• Climate change 2007: the physical science basis

  2010cited by this paper
• Switchgrass as an energy crop for biofuel production: A review of its ligno-cellulosic chemical properties

  2010cited by this paper
• Main routes for the thermo-conversion of biomass into fuels and chemicals. Part 1: Pyrolysis systems

  2009cited by this paper
• A new look at atmospheric carbon dioxide

  2009cited by this paper
• Distributed processing of biomass to bio‐oil for subsequent production of Fischer‐Tropsch liquids

  2008cited by this paper
• A Review and Future Prospects of Renewable Energy in the Global Energy System

  2008cited by this paper
• A life cycle comparison of coal and natural gas for electricity generation and the production of transportation fuels

  2007cited by this paper
• A comparison of greenhouse gas emissions from inputs into farm enterprises in Southeast Queensland, Australia

  2007cited by this paper
• Power generation using fast pyrolysis liquids from biomass

  2007influential reference
• Bench-Scale Fluidized-Bed Pyrolysis of Switchgrass for Bio-Oil Production†

  2007influential reference
• Agriculture's role in greenhouse gas mitigation

  2007cited by this paper
• Estimated Costs for Production, Storage, and Transportation of Switchgrass

  2007cited by this paper
• Switchgrass as an alternate feedstock for power generation: an integrated environmental, energy and economic life-cycle assessment

  2006cited by this paper
• Impact of electric power generation on green house gas emissions in Europe: Russia, Greece, Italy and views of the EU power plant supply industry – A critical analysis

  2006cited by this paper
• Opportunities for biomass-derived "bio-oil" in European heat and power markets

  2006cited by this paper
• Switchgrass production for the upper southeastern USA: Influence of cultivar and cutting frequency on biomass yields

  2006cited by this paper
• Switchgrass as a biofuels feedstock in the USA

  2006cited by this paper
• R&D (Research and Development) on distributed power generation from solid fuels

  2006cited by this paper
• The New International Standards for Life Cycle Assessment: ISO 14040 and ISO 14044

  2006cited by this paper
• Modern Biomass Conversion Technologies

  2006cited by this paper
• Development of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) as a bioenergy feedstock in the United States.

  2005cited by this paper
• Norms and Standards for Pyrolysis Liquids. End-User Requirements and Specifications

  2005cited by this paper
• Herbaceous vegetation productivity, persistence, and metals uptake on a biosolids-amended mine soil.

  2005cited by this paper
• Overview of Applications of Biomass Fast Pyrolysis Oil

  2004cited by this paper
• Life cycle assessment Part 1 : Framework , goal and scope definition , inventory analysis , and applications

  2004cited by this paper
• A Life Cycle Cost Summary

  2003cited by this paper
• Experience With Gas Engines Optimized for H2-Rich Fuels

  2003cited by this paper
• Costs of producing switchgrass for biomass in Southern Iowa.

  2002cited by this paper
• Worldwide use of biomass in power generation and combined heat and power schemes

  2002cited by this paper
• Biomass yield and quality of 20 switchgrass populations in southern Iowa, USA.

  2002cited by this paper
• Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis in oil and chemical process industries

  1999cited by this paper
• GLOBAL WARMING IS DIRE OIL INDUSTRY ISSUE

  1998cited by this paper
• Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change

  1998cited by this paper
• DOUBLE-HULL DRILLSHIP, AUTOMATED DRILLING, IMPROVE OPERABILITY

  1998cited by this paper
• Evaluating environmental consequences of producing herbaceous crops for bioenergy.

  1995cited by this paper
• Feasibility of power production with pyrolysis and gasification systems

  1995cited by this paper
• Use of pyrolysis oil in a test diesel engine to study the feasibility of a diesel power plant concept

  1994cited by this paper
• The average haul distance and transportation work factors for biomass delivered to a central plant

  1982cited by this paper

• Optimizing bioenergy biofuel harvest: a comparative analysis of stepwise and integrated methods for economic and environmental sustainability.

  2025cites this paper
• An assessment of current hydrogen supply chains in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

  2024cites this paper
• A Model for Determining the Optimal Decommissioning Interval of Energy Equipment Based on the Whole Life Cycle Cost

  2023cites this paper
• Life cycle environmental and cost evaluation of renewable diesel production

  2020cites this paper
• A Comparative Technoeconomic Analysis of Algal Thermochemical Conversion Technologies for Diluent Production

  2019cites this paper
• Quick Green Scan: A Methodology for Improving Green Performance in Terms of Manufacturing Processes

  2017cites this paper
• Quick Green Scan : A Methodology for Improving Green Performance in Terms of Manufacturing Processes

  2017cites this paper
• Multiyear Life Cycle Assessment of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) production in the Mediterranean region of Spain: A comparative case study

  2017influential citation
• gent-based life cycle assessment for switchgrass-based bioenergy ystems

  2015cites this paper
• Agent-based life cycle assessment for switchgrass-based bioenergy systems

  2015cites this paper
• Modeling of Bioenergy Production

  2014cites this paper