Comparison life cycle analysis of conventional versus modified integrated ethanol plants

传统与改良一体化乙醇工厂的生命周期比较分析

• 批准号: 461616-2013
• 负责人: Tam, Edwin
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Windsor
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Engage Grants Program
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=542698
• 关键词: Comparison; life; cycle; analysis; conventional

In conventional corn-to-ethanol fermentation, every one ton of corn gets converted in to one-third of ethanol, one-third of dried distillers' grains, and one-third into carbon dioxide. At the production facilities at Greenfield Ethanol Inc. (Greenfield), thousands of tons of carbon dioxide are being released daily to the atmosphere representing loss of potential revenue. To increase profits, Greenfield has developed a novel concept for renewable "drop-in" liquid fuels production. The novel concept utilizes three innovative Canadian technologies under bench-scale development that, when combined together in one process, will provide 100% renewable jet, diesel, naphtha, and ethanol fuels, from corn and a variety of non-food-grade feedstocks. In addition, besides the obvious renewable nature of the fuel products from the proposed process due to the type of feedstocks to be utilized, the process relies on carbon dioxide as one of the main feedstocks for the gas-to-liquid conversion process (the major by-product from ethanol manufacturing and anaerobic digestion), significantly improving the carbon foot-print and economics of the fuel products. As this concept targets clean energy production while at the same time mitigating environmental pollution, and reducing the carbon footprint of many processes, the economic benefits to Canada are in the billions if this technology was licensed worldwide as envisioned. Given the uniqueness and novelty of its waste-to-gas-to-renewable liquid fuels proposed project, it is very important to study the eco-efficiency, assess the life cycle impact, and analyze the sustainability of the new integrated ethanol plant and compare it side by side to currently existing conventional ethanol plant technology. The goal of this specific project is, therefore, to conduct a conceptual level life cycle assessment (LCA) of Greenfield's new integrated ethanol plant technology to ascertain its proposed environmental effects, compared to currently existing conventional ethanol plant technology.

在传统的玉米制乙醇发酵中，每一吨玉米转化为三分之一的乙醇，三分之一的干酒糟，三分之一转化为二氧化碳。在格林菲尔德乙醇公司的生产设施。（格林菲尔德），每天有数千吨二氧化碳被释放到大气中，这代表着潜在收入的损失。为了增加利润，格林菲尔德开发了一种新的概念，可再生的“滴”液体燃料生产。这一新概念利用了三项正在实验室规模开发的加拿大创新技术，当这些技术结合在一起时，将从玉米和各种非食品级原料中提供100%的可再生喷气式飞机，柴油，石脑油和乙醇燃料。此外，除了由于待利用的原料的类型而导致的来自所提出的方法的燃料产品的明显可再生性质之外，该方法依赖于二氧化碳作为用于气体至液体转化方法的主要原料之一（来自乙醇制造和厌氧消化的主要副产物），显著改善了燃料产品的碳足迹和经济性。由于这一概念的目标是清洁能源生产，同时减轻环境污染，并减少许多过程的碳足迹，如果这项技术按照设想在全球范围内获得许可，加拿大将获得数十亿美元的经济效益。鉴于其废物-气体-可再生液体燃料拟议项目的独特性和新奇，研究生态效率，评估生命周期影响，分析新的综合乙醇工厂的可持续性并将其与现有的传统乙醇工厂技术进行比较是非常重要的。因此，本特定项目的目标是对格林菲尔德新的综合乙醇工厂技术进行概念级生命周期评估（LCA），以确定其拟议的环境影响，并与现有的传统乙醇工厂技术进行比较。