The following study was conducted by Scientists from University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei; Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou; State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. Study is published in Science Advances Journal as detailed below.
Science Advances: Jan 2020: Vol. 6, no. 1, eaay0748
Bio-coal: A Renewable and Massively Producible Fuel from Lignocellulosic Biomass
Abstract
Development of renewable energy is essential to mitigating the fossil fuel shortage and climate change issues. Here, we propose to produce a new type of energy, bio-coal, via a fast pyrolysis coupled with atmospheric distillation process. The high heating values of the as-prepared bio-coals from the representative biomass are within 25.4 to 28.2 MJ kg−1, which are comparable to that of the commercial coals. Life cycle assessment further shows that the bio-coal production process could achieve net positive energy, financial, and environmental benefits. By using available biomass wastes as feedstock, China is expected to have a total bio-coal production of 402 million tons of standard coal equivalent, which is equal to 13% of national coal consumption. It would grant China an opportunity to additionally cut 738 million tons of CO2 emission by substituting an equal amount of coal with bio-coal in 2030.
Source:
Science Advances
URL: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/1/eaay0748
Citation:
Cheng, B.-H., B.-C. Huang, et al. (2020). “Bio-coal: A renewable and massively producible fuel from lignocellulosic biomass.” Science Advances 6(1): eaay0748.
