(185e) Impact of Biomass Densification on the Overall Economics of Renewable Gasoline and Diesel Production

The feedstock to make renewable gasoline and diesel (RGD) fuels via integrated fast pyrolysis and hydrodeoxygenation (IFPH) pathway must be procured from energy crops, forest and crop residues, and forest and organic wastes to avoid potential impacts on food and water security with the bioenergy production. The low bulk density of these renewable feedstocks results in large shipping volumes that create significant logistical challenges. The requirement of huge transportation volumes for bioenergy production can be reduced with the densification of renewable feedstocks before they are processed to make RGD fuels. However, the addition of costs and a change in overall mass and energy yields of RGD fuel production with the biomass densification can influence the overall economic performance of RGD fuel production via IFPH pathway. In this study, we investigated the impact of biomass densification on the overall economic performance of RGD fuel production through the comparison of the techno-economic studies of eight scenarios. In each scenario, either non-densified feedstock (switchgrass/wood chips) or densified feedstock in the form of pellets, torrefied pellets and pyrolysis oil is shipped to a central facility where non-densified and densified feedstock is converted to RGD fuel via (IFPH) pathway. It is found that the densification reduces the transportation cost of renewable feedstock by at least 20%. However, the requirement of capital and operating costs for the renewable feedstock densification increases the minimum selling price of RGD fuel by at least 3% as compared to that of RGD fuel made from non-densified feedstock. This result indicates that the densification of renewable feedstock via pelletization, torrefaction, and pyrolysis is not an economically viable option to produce RGD fuel via the IFPH pathway when there is no competition for procuring renewable feedstock from a land surrounding the biorefinery. Therefore, the influences of feedstock competition and capital cost scaling factor on the impact of distributed biomass densification economics will also be discussed.