IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v208y2017icp1343-1356.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Uncertainties in corn stover feedstock supply logistics cost and life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions for butanol production

Author

Listed:
  • Baral, Nawa Raj
  • Quiroz-Arita, Carlos
  • Bradley, Thomas H.

Abstract

The success and sustainable operation of a commercial cellulosic biorefinery are highly dependent on price, quality, and availability of feedstocks. Currently, corn stover is a primary feedstock choice for cellulosic ethanol production and the same feedstock can be used for butanol production, which is a potential alternative biofuel. However, butanol production requires different levels of feedstock and logistical resources when compared to ethanol due to about 20% lower theoretical yield. A thorough analysis of cost, life-cycle energy use and life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with a feedstock supply logistics system for butanol production is yet to be done. Additionally, quality standards for corn stover feedstock are yet to be determined, which could determine cost of the feedstock for commercial applications. Thus, this study aimed to fulfill these research gaps using techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment methodologies. Variability in logistical resources and other input parameters gathered from recent literature were used for analyses in this study. Average corn stover supply logistics cost ($/metric ton(t), dry), life-cycle energy use (MJ/t, dry) and life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO2e/t, dry) were 86.9, 1073.7 and 83.8, which could increase at 95% certainty to 159–504, 1672–3817 and 138–271, respectively, depending on the types of probability distributions of the input parameters. However, the mode value of logistics cost ($/t, dry), life-cycle energy use (MJ/t, dry) and life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO2e/t, dry) of 80–120, 913–1231 and 79–120, respectively, closely represents the results of the static model. The average estimated feedstock cost for butanol production was about 1.3 times and the minimum 95% certainty value is about 2 times more than the targeted feedstock cost ($/metric ton, dry) of 66.4, excluding preprocessing. Overall, the location of the biorefinery, quality of corn stover, sustainable agricultural practices, and optimum utilization of transportation resources were key factors that enable a sustainable feedstock supply logistics system.

Suggested Citation

  • Baral, Nawa Raj & Quiroz-Arita, Carlos & Bradley, Thomas H., 2017. "Uncertainties in corn stover feedstock supply logistics cost and life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions for butanol production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 1343-1356.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:208:y:2017:i:c:p:1343-1356
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.09.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626191731293X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.09.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Muth, D.J. & Bryden, K.M. & Nelson, R.G., 2013. "Sustainable agricultural residue removal for bioenergy: A spatially comprehensive US national assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 403-417.
    2. Wang, Yu & Ebadian, Mahmood & Sokhansanj, Shahab & Webb, Erin & Lau, Anthony, 2017. "Impact of the biorefinery size on the logistics of corn stover supply – A scenario analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 360-376.
    3. McKechnie, Jon & Pourbafrani, Mohammad & Saville, Bradley A. & MacLean, Heather L., 2015. "Exploring impacts of process technology development and regional factors on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of corn stover ethanol," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 726-734.
    4. Kumar, Manish & Goyal, Yogesh & Sarkar, Abhijit & Gayen, Kalyan, 2012. "Comparative economic assessment of ABE fermentation based on cellulosic and non-cellulosic feedstocks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 193-204.
    5. Ebadian, Mahmood & Sowlati, Taraneh & Sokhansanj, Shahab & Townley-Smith, Lawrence & Stumborg, Mark, 2013. "Modeling and analysing storage systems in agricultural biomass supply chain for cellulosic ethanol production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 840-849.
    6. Perlack, R.D. & Turhollow, A.F., 2003. "Feedstock cost analysis of corn stover residues for further processing," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(14), pages 1395-1403.
    7. Wang, Chenguang & Larson, James A. & English, Burton C. & Jensen, Kimberly L., 2009. "Cost Analysis of Alternative Harvest, Storage and Transportation Methods for Delivering Switchgrass to a Biorefinery from the Farmers’ perspective," 2009 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2009, Atlanta, Georgia 46812, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    8. Levasseur, Annie & Bahn, Olivier & Beloin-Saint-Pierre, Didier & Marinova, Mariya & Vaillancourt, Kathleen, 2017. "Assessing butanol from integrated forest biorefinery: A combined techno-economic and life cycle approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 440-452.
    9. David Tilman & Kenneth G. Cassman & Pamela A. Matson & Rosamond Naylor & Stephen Polasky, 2002. "Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6898), pages 671-677, August.
    10. Pereira, L.G. & Dias, M.O.S. & Mariano, A.P. & Maciel Filho, R. & Bonomi, A., 2015. "Economic and environmental assessment of n-butanol production in an integrated first and second generation sugarcane biorefinery: Fermentative versus catalytic routes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 120-131.
    11. Long Nguyen & Kara G. Cafferty & Erin M. Searcy & Sabrina Spatari, 2014. "Uncertainties in Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Advanced Biomass Feedstock Logistics Supply Chains in Kansas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-22, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Espinoza Pérez, Andrea Teresa & Camargo, Mauricio & Narváez Rincón, Paulo César & Alfaro Marchant, Miguel, 2017. "Key challenges and requirements for sustainable and industrialized biorefinery supply chain design and management: A bibliographic analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 350-359.
    2. Zhao, Yan & Damgaard, Anders & Xu, Yingjie & Liu, Shan & Christensen, Thomas H., 2019. "Bioethanol from corn stover – Global warming footprint of alternative biotechnologies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 237-253.
    3. Sabrina Spatari & Alexander Stadel & Paul R. Adler & Saurajyoti Kar & William J. Parton & Kevin B. Hicks & Andrew J. McAloon & Patrick L. Gurian, 2020. "The Role of Biorefinery Co-Products, Market Proximity and Feedstock Environmental Footprint in Meeting Biofuel Policy Goals for Winter Barley-to-Ethanol," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Wang, Zhanwu & Wang, Zhenfeng & Tahir, Nadeem & Wang, Heng & Li, Jin & Xu, Guangyin, 2020. "Study of synergetic development in straw power supply chain: Straw price and government subsidy as incentive," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    5. Golecha, Rajdeep & Gan, Jianbang, 2016. "Effects of corn stover year-to-year supply variability and market structure on biomass utilization and cost," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 34-44.
    6. Hu, Kejia & Chen, Yuche, 2019. "Equilibrium fuel supply and carbon credit pricing under market competition and environmental regulations: A California case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 815-824.
    7. Atsonios, Konstantinos & Kougioumtzis, Michael-Alexander & D. Panopoulos, Kyriakos & Kakaras, Emmanuel, 2015. "Alternative thermochemical routes for aviation biofuels via alcohols synthesis: Process modeling, techno-economic assessment and comparison," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 346-366.
    8. Elisa Morri & Riccardo Santolini, 2021. "Ecosystem Services Valuation for the Sustainable Land Use Management by Nature-Based Solution (NbS) in the Common Agricultural Policy Actions: A Case Study on the Foglia River Basin (Marche Region, It," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, December.
    9. Yang Yang & Ji-Qin Ni & Weiqing Bao & Lei Zhao & Guang Hui Xie, 2019. "Potential Reductions in Greenhouse Gas and Fine Particulate Matter Emissions Using Corn Stover for Ethanol Production in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-14, September.
    10. Katarina Arvidsson Segerkvist & Helena Hansson & Ulf Sonesson & Stefan Gunnarsson, 2021. "A Systematic Mapping of Current Literature on Sustainability at Farm-Level in Beef and Lamb Meat Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, February.
    11. Hualin Xie & Yingqian Huang & Qianru Chen & Yanwei Zhang & Qing Wu, 2019. "Prospects for Agricultural Sustainable Intensification: A Review of Research," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-27, October.
    12. Smith, Helen F. & Sullivan, Caroline A., 2014. "Ecosystem services within agricultural landscapes—Farmers' perceptions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 72-80.
    13. Aude Ridier & Caroline Roussy & Karim Chaib, 2021. "Adoption of crop diversification by specialized grain farmers in south-western France: evidence from a choice-modelling experiment," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 102(3), pages 265-283, September.
    14. Paul L. G. Vlek & Asia Khamzina & Hossein Azadi & Anik Bhaduri & Luna Bharati & Ademola Braimoh & Christopher Martius & Terry Sunderland & Fatemeh Taheri, 2017. "Trade-Offs in Multi-Purpose Land Use under Land Degradation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-19, November.
    15. Diriba Shiferaw G., 2017. "Water-Nutrients Interaction: Exploring the Effects of Water as a Central Role for Availability & Use Efficiency of Nutrients by Shallow Rooted Vegetable Crops - A Review," Journal of Agriculture and Crops, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 3(10), pages 78-93, 10-2017.
    16. Sheng Gong & Jason.S. Bergtold & Elizabeth Yeager, 2021. "Assessing the joint adoption and complementarity between in-field conservation practices of Kansas farmers," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, December.
    17. Seufert, Verena & Ramankutty, Navin & Mayerhofer, Tabea, 2017. "What is this thing called organic? – How organic farming is codified in regulations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 10-20.
    18. Kataki, Sampriti & West, Helen & Clarke, Michèle & Baruah, D.C., 2016. "Phosphorus recovery as struvite: Recent concerns for use of seed, alternative Mg source, nitrogen conservation and fertilizer potential," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 142-156.
    19. Alexander D. Chapman & Stephen E. Darby & Hoàng M. Hồng & Emma L. Tompkins & Tri P. D. Van, 2016. "Adaptation and development trade-offs: fluvial sediment deposition and the sustainability of rice-cropping in An Giang Province, Mekong Delta," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 593-608, August.
    20. Rosa, R.D. & Ramos, T.B. & Pereira, L.S., 2016. "The dual Kc approach to assess maize and sweet sorghum transpiration and soil evaporation under saline conditions: Application of the SIMDualKc model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 77-94.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:208:y:2017:i:c:p:1343-1356. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.