Development of novel reactors and integrated assessment tools for biomass and bioenergy systems

为了解决人类的可持续发展和应对全球气候变化，需要在支持社会可持续性的同时考虑环境和经济的可持续性。近年来，关于生物质作为一种潜在的可再生和可持续能源的最佳利用问题在北美引起了激烈的辩论。在像不列颠哥伦比亚省和魁北克这样的地方，如果有效利用，丰富的生物质残留物是潜在的可再生能源。仅在不列颠哥伦比亚省，估计每年有3200万吨生物质残留物，但每年只有约100万吨生物质残留物被制成木屑颗粒，其中大部分出口到欧洲，原因是缺乏有效的生物燃料转化和污染控制技术，阻碍了可持续的国内生物燃料市场的发展。 这个拟议的项目将支持我们最近在开发生物质加工和转化的清洁和绿色能源技术方面的努力。我们将开发一种新型的流化床焙烧工艺，对生物质残渣进行热预处理，以生产防水、高能量密度和耐用的焙烧木屑颗粒，用于国内火力发电厂。与此同时，我们将开发一个生物质能源系统的综合评估工具，然后使用该工具来评估生物质能源系统的整个生命周期及其净效益的环境，经济和社会影响，以确保这些技术的部署将有利于经济，环境和社会。 第二代工程化焙烧木屑颗粒的成功开发和对整个生物质能源系统的系统理解将使加拿大丰富的森林和农业生物质残留物在国内市场的发展成为可能，有助于加拿大经济和自然资源的可持续发展，同时解决紧迫的环境和全球问题。

To address the sustainable human development and to combat global climate change, environmental and economical sustainability need to be considered in supporting the social sustainability. There have been heated debates in recent years on the optimal utilization of biomass as a potentially renewable and sustainable energy source for greenhouse gas mitigation in North America. In places like British Columbia (BC) and Quebec, abundantly available biomass residues are potential renewable energy sources if effectively utilized. In BC alone, there are estimated 32 million tones/year of biomass residues available, but only about one million tones of them are made into wood pellets each year, with majority of them exported to Europe due to the lack of effective biofuel conversion and pollution control technologies, preventing the development of a sustainable domestic biofuel market. This proposed project will support our recent efforts in developing clean and green energy technologies for biomass processing and conversion. We will develop a novel fluidized bed torrefaction process to thermally pretreat biomass residues for the production of water-resistant, high energy density and durable torrefied wood pellets for domestic applications in thermal power plants. In parallel, we will develop an integrated assessment tool for biomass energy systems, and then use the tool to evaluate the environmental, economical and social impacts based on the whole life cycle of the biomass energy system and its net benefit to make sure that the deployment of those technologies will benefit the economy, environment and society. The successful developments of the second generation engineered torrefied wood pellets and a systems understanding of the whole biomass energy system to be developed will enable the development of domestic market for abundant forest and agriculatural biomass residues in Canada, contributing to the sustainable development of Canadian economy and natural resources while addressing the pressing environmental and global concerns.