Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels
The global economy is shifting toward more sustainable sources of energy. The transportation sector is a remarkable example of this fact, where biofuels have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional fossil fuels. This work presents a techno-economic and environmental assessment of existing l...
| Autores: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/351618 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/351618 https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2021.676233 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Renewable energy sources Biomass energy Biomass Energies renovables Biocombustibles Biomassa Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química |
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Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuelsPacheco López, Adrián|||0000-0002-5064-7545Lechtenberg, Fabian|||0000-0001-8884-634XSomoza Tornos, Ana|||0000-0002-4715-204XGraells Sobré, Moisès|||0000-0002-0553-2191Espuña Camarasa, Antonio|||0000-0002-1238-8108Renewable energy sourcesBiomass energyBiomassEnergies renovablesBiocombustiblesBiomassaÀrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria químicaThe global economy is shifting toward more sustainable sources of energy. The transportation sector is a remarkable example of this fact, where biofuels have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional fossil fuels. This work presents a techno-economic and environmental assessment of existing liquid fuels in hard-to-decarbonize sectors and their emerging renewable substitutes. The comparison focuses on fossil-based, biomass-derived, and plastic waste-sourced fuel alternatives that can be used in spark-ignition (gasoline) and compression-ignition (diesel) engines. Results for diesel substitutes prove the superior performance of plastic waste pyrolysis oil in terms of production cost reduction (-25% compared to diesel) and “well-to-tank” life cycle impact reduction (-54% human health, -40% ecosystems, -98% resources). Consequently, research and development toward the conversion of plastic waste into fuels should be extended to make the technology more accessible and robust in terms of fuel quality. On the contrary, the results for gasoline alternatives are not as conclusive: bioethanol and ethanol from plastic pyrolysis have a considerably lower impact on resource scarcity than gasoline (-80% and -35% respectively) and higher on the other two life cycle endpoint categories, but they have higher production costs compared to gasoline (+57% and +130% respectively). While blends of gasoline with pyrolysis-sourced ethanol can reduce the impact on human health and ecosystems, blends with bioethanol have a lower impact on resource scarcity and increase economic profitability. This allows fuel providers to offer tradeoff solutions in the form of blends based on their priorities.Peer Reviewed20212021-06-2420212021-09-17journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2117/351618https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2021.676233reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPCinstname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Spainhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/3516182026-05-27T15:37:01Z |
| dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels |
| title |
Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels |
| spellingShingle |
Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels Pacheco López, Adrián|||0000-0002-5064-7545 Renewable energy sources Biomass energy Biomass Energies renovables Biocombustibles Biomassa Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química |
| title_short |
Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels |
| title_full |
Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels |
| title_fullStr |
Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels |
| title_sort |
Economic and environmental assessment of plastic waste pyrolysis products and biofuels as substitutes for fossil-based fuels |
| dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv |
Pacheco López, Adrián|||0000-0002-5064-7545 Lechtenberg, Fabian|||0000-0001-8884-634X Somoza Tornos, Ana|||0000-0002-4715-204X Graells Sobré, Moisès|||0000-0002-0553-2191 Espuña Camarasa, Antonio|||0000-0002-1238-8108 |
| author |
Pacheco López, Adrián|||0000-0002-5064-7545 |
| author_facet |
Pacheco López, Adrián|||0000-0002-5064-7545 Lechtenberg, Fabian|||0000-0001-8884-634X Somoza Tornos, Ana|||0000-0002-4715-204X Graells Sobré, Moisès|||0000-0002-0553-2191 Espuña Camarasa, Antonio|||0000-0002-1238-8108 |
| author_role |
author |
| author2 |
Lechtenberg, Fabian|||0000-0001-8884-634X Somoza Tornos, Ana|||0000-0002-4715-204X Graells Sobré, Moisès|||0000-0002-0553-2191 Espuña Camarasa, Antonio|||0000-0002-1238-8108 |
| author2_role |
author author author author |
| dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
Renewable energy sources Biomass energy Biomass Energies renovables Biocombustibles Biomassa Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química |
| topic |
Renewable energy sources Biomass energy Biomass Energies renovables Biocombustibles Biomassa Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química |
| description |
The global economy is shifting toward more sustainable sources of energy. The transportation sector is a remarkable example of this fact, where biofuels have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional fossil fuels. This work presents a techno-economic and environmental assessment of existing liquid fuels in hard-to-decarbonize sectors and their emerging renewable substitutes. The comparison focuses on fossil-based, biomass-derived, and plastic waste-sourced fuel alternatives that can be used in spark-ignition (gasoline) and compression-ignition (diesel) engines. Results for diesel substitutes prove the superior performance of plastic waste pyrolysis oil in terms of production cost reduction (-25% compared to diesel) and “well-to-tank” life cycle impact reduction (-54% human health, -40% ecosystems, -98% resources). Consequently, research and development toward the conversion of plastic waste into fuels should be extended to make the technology more accessible and robust in terms of fuel quality. On the contrary, the results for gasoline alternatives are not as conclusive: bioethanol and ethanol from plastic pyrolysis have a considerably lower impact on resource scarcity than gasoline (-80% and -35% respectively) and higher on the other two life cycle endpoint categories, but they have higher production costs compared to gasoline (+57% and +130% respectively). While blends of gasoline with pyrolysis-sourced ethanol can reduce the impact on human health and ecosystems, blends with bioethanol have a lower impact on resource scarcity and increase economic profitability. This allows fuel providers to offer tradeoff solutions in the form of blends based on their priorities. |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2021 2021-06-24 2021 2021-09-17 |
| dc.type.none.fl_str_mv |
journal article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 VoR http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 |
| dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| format |
article |
| dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv |
https://hdl.handle.net/2117/351618 https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2021.676233 |
| url |
https://hdl.handle.net/2117/351618 https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2021.676233 |
| dc.language.none.fl_str_mv |
Inglés eng |
| language_invalid_str_mv |
Inglés |
| language |
eng |
| dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv |
open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Spain http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Spain http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ |
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openAccess |
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application/pdf |
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reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC instname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
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