Schlussbericht
(Englisch)
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Biomass from agriculture, crop residues, forestry, landscape management, and wastes from industry and households can be used for energy recovery. In order to obtain useful energy carriers from the different biomass substrates, they can be fermented for a conversion into biogas, they can be converted into biofuels or they can be burnt directly in order to receive heat or to generate electricity.
In this project a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the direct combustion of different non-wood biomass substrates is performed. For that purpose the life cycle inventory (LCI) data are collected and modelled according to the present guidelines of ecoinvent data v2.2. The final product is useful heat provided by the combustion process.
A survey of the potential biomass substrates for direct combustion mentioned in literature was conducted, which gave an overview of these substrates covering pomaces, kernels, shells, by-products from industry, oil from oil seeds, and other products and wastes.
Based on the overview of potential biomass substrates for combustion and the availability of data, life cycle inventory data for burning the following five substrates are collected:
– Olive dry pomace
– Coffee ground pellets
– Horse dung & wood chips co-combustion
– Poultry litter pellets
– Slurry solids & wood chips co-combustion
The life cycle impact assessment shows that the combustion of the biomass substrates has the highest environmental impact, followed by the disposal of the ash generated by the combustion process. In general the biomass substrates perform worse compared to the combustion of wood from an environmental point of view. The burning of biomass substrates generates higher particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions than the combustion of wood or wood pellets. The combustion of coffee ground pellets, poultry litter pellets and horse dung mixed with wood chips show similar environmental impacts as the combustion of wood logs in a small furnace.
The study shows the improvement potentials regarding reduction of air emissions and disposal routes for ashes. These have to be further evaluated and measurements on key pollutants are necessary in order to finally judge about the possibilities and environmental impacts of using biomass wastes in direct combustion processes.
Auftragnehmer/Contractant/Contraente/Contractor:
ESU-Services Ltd., fair consulting in sustainability
Autorschaft/Auteurs/Autori/Authors:
Itten,René
Stucki,Matthias
Jungbluth,Niels
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