Cost and Life Cycle Emissions of Ethanol Produced with an Oxyfuel Boiler and Carbon Capture and Storage

Decarbonization of transportation fuels represents one of the most vexing challenges for climate change mitigation. Biofuels derived from corn starch have offered modest life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions over fossil fuels. Here we show that capture and storage of CO2 emissions fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Environmental science & technology Vol. 57; no. 13; pp. 5391 - 5403
Main Authors:	Dees, John, Oke, Kafayat, Goldstein, Hannah, McCoy, Sean T., Sanchez, Daniel L., Simon, A. J., Li, Wenqin
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States American Chemical Society 04-04-2023
Subjects:	Abatement Biofuels Boilers Carbon Carbon Dioxide Carbon dioxide emissions Carbon sequestration Climate change Climate change mitigation Corn Cost analysis Decarbonization Emissions Emissions control Energy and Climate Ethanol Fermentation Fossil fuels Greenhouse Effect Greenhouse Gases Life cycle costs Life cycles Natural Gas Sensitivity analysis carbon negative fuel CCS techno-economic analysis ethanol oxycombustion life cycle assessment
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Summary:	Decarbonization of transportation fuels represents one of the most vexing challenges for climate change mitigation. Biofuels derived from corn starch have offered modest life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions over fossil fuels. Here we show that capture and storage of CO2 emissions from corn ethanol fermentation achieves ∼58% reduction in the GHG intensity (CI) of ethanol at a levelized cost of 52 $/tCO2e abated. The integration of an oxyfuel boiler enables further CO2 capture at modest cost. This system yields a 75% reduction in CI to 15 gCO2e/MJ at a minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) of $2.24/gallon ($0.59/L), a $0.31/gallon ($0.08/L) increase relative to the baseline no intervention case. The levelized cost of carbon abatement is 84 $/tCO2e. Sensitivity analysis reveals that carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative ethanol can be achieved when oxyfuel carbon capture is stacked with low-CI alternatives to grid power and fossil natural gas. Conservatively, fermentation and oxyfuel CCS can reduce the CI of conventional ethanol by a net 44–50 gCO2/MJ. Full implementation of interventions explored in the sensitivity analysis would reduce CI by net 79–85 gCO2/MJ. Integrated oxyfuel and fermentation CCS is shown to be cost-effective under existing U.S. policy, offering near-term abatement opportunities.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 USDOE LLNL-JRNL-836683; AC52-07NA27344
ISSN:	0013-936X 1520-5851
DOI:	10.1021/acs.est.2c04784