(263b) Regional Techno-Economic (TEA) Analysis of the Pyrolysis-Bioenergy-Biochar Pathway for Carbon-Negative Energy

The objective of this project is to evaluate regional economic impacts of an integrated pyrolysis-bioenergy-biochar industry to produce carbon negative energy. Utilization of biochar co-produced from fast pyrolysis process as soil amendment is essential to produce carbon negative energy. Selection of the pyrolysis biorefinery location is important since it involves feedstock availability and prices, biochar demand and credits, soil type and quality, and logistics etc. Therefore, we conducted an economic analysis including regional factors to determine the best biorefinery location to maximize the economic benefits of the pyrolysis-bioenergy-biochar platform.

Three specific land areas of US are investigated depending on the selection of pyrolysis facility locations: Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB), U.S. Southeast and California. Three counties including Hamilton (Iowa), Jackson (Florida) and Glenn (California) were selected to represent these three regions. We applied biochar produced from fast pyrolysis of corn stover, switchgrass and forest residue to crop lands for corn, peanuts and rice individually for these three counties. The correlation between biochar application to crop yields change were modeled based on over 100 previous literatures. The mean crop yield increases have been predicted as 2.9%, 10% and 4.5% in Hamilton, Jackson and Glenn. The biochar prices that the farmers are willing to pay were calculated as $113, $475 and $262 per metric ton with a biochar application rate of 5 metric tons per hectare.

Capital cost are also sensitive to the biorefinery location. The location multipliers have been suggested as 0.92, 0.82 and 1.17 for Iowa, Florida and California in Dodge unit cost guide. The feedstock costs vary with the feedstock type in different regions. The capital cost, operating cost and minimum fuel selling price was estimated over three different states to identify the most economic beneficial location to build this pyrolysis-biochar-bioenergy platform.