Utilization of CO2 in renewable DME fuel production: A life cycle analysis (LCA)-based case study in China

Marco Tomatis; Ashak Mahmud Parvez; Muhammad T. Afzal; Sannia Mareta; Tao Wu; Jun He; Tianbiao He

doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115627

Utilization of CO₂ in renewable DME fuel production: A life cycle analysis (LCA)-based case study in China

Marco Tomatis, Ashak Mahmud Parvez, Muhammad T. Afzal, Sannia Mareta, Tao Wu, Jun He, Tianbiao He

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering

Research output: Journal Publication › Article › peer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This work aimed to evaluate the environmental performance of single-step dimethyl ether (DME) production system through CO₂-enhanced gasification of gumwood. The proposed CO₂-enhanced gasification based bio-DME production process was compared systematically with the conventional approach in terms of life cycle assessment (LCA) impacts by using SimaPro software. Overall, the LCA results revealed that bio-DME fuel produced from CO₂-enhanced process significantly reduced the burden on climate change, toxicity and eco-toxicity by at least 20%. This decrement was mostly attributed to low feedstock consumption, high-energy recovery and CO₂ utilization in the CO₂-enhanced process. Over 53% contribution in all impact categories were contributed by the gasifier unit, mainly due to its high energy intensity (over 60% of the total energy requirement). Moreover, the effect of replacing diesel by bio-DME or diesel/DME blend as an automotive fuel was assessed in this study. The scenario of using pure DME resulted on significant reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by 72%, and of its impact on both human health and ecosystem (by 55% and 68%, respectively). The reduction of GHG emissions were caused by the carbon neutrality of bio-DME. Utilization of DME also limited the emissions of carcinogenic particulate such as diesel soot and therefore, decreased the toxicity of traffic emissions. The second scenario was to utilize DME15 (15% DME by wt in diesel) as an automotive fuel. However, only minor decreases, up to 7%, of the environmental impact were observed for DME15 compared to those estimated for pure diesel. Thus, the present study demonstrated that the CO₂-enhanced process could greatly reduce GHG emission and environmental burden of DME production compared to the conventional method. Furthermore, bio-DME utilization as fuel for automotive applications can significantly decrease the hazard caused by traffic emissions.

Original language	English
Article number	115627
Journal	Fuel
Volume	254
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115627
Publication status	Published - 15 Oct 2019

Keywords

Bio-DME
CO-enhanced gasification
DME15
Diesel
Fuel replacement
LCA

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemical Engineering
Fuel Technology
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Organic Chemistry

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115627

Cite this

@article{90b206215ad040a9b19b874960559996,

title = "Utilization of CO2 in renewable DME fuel production: A life cycle analysis (LCA)-based case study in China",

abstract = "This work aimed to evaluate the environmental performance of single-step dimethyl ether (DME) production system through CO2-enhanced gasification of gumwood. The proposed CO2-enhanced gasification based bio-DME production process was compared systematically with the conventional approach in terms of life cycle assessment (LCA) impacts by using SimaPro software. Overall, the LCA results revealed that bio-DME fuel produced from CO2-enhanced process significantly reduced the burden on climate change, toxicity and eco-toxicity by at least 20%. This decrement was mostly attributed to low feedstock consumption, high-energy recovery and CO2 utilization in the CO2-enhanced process. Over 53% contribution in all impact categories were contributed by the gasifier unit, mainly due to its high energy intensity (over 60% of the total energy requirement). Moreover, the effect of replacing diesel by bio-DME or diesel/DME blend as an automotive fuel was assessed in this study. The scenario of using pure DME resulted on significant reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by 72%, and of its impact on both human health and ecosystem (by 55% and 68%, respectively). The reduction of GHG emissions were caused by the carbon neutrality of bio-DME. Utilization of DME also limited the emissions of carcinogenic particulate such as diesel soot and therefore, decreased the toxicity of traffic emissions. The second scenario was to utilize DME15 (15% DME by wt in diesel) as an automotive fuel. However, only minor decreases, up to 7%, of the environmental impact were observed for DME15 compared to those estimated for pure diesel. Thus, the present study demonstrated that the CO2-enhanced process could greatly reduce GHG emission and environmental burden of DME production compared to the conventional method. Furthermore, bio-DME utilization as fuel for automotive applications can significantly decrease the hazard caused by traffic emissions.",

keywords = "Bio-DME, CO-enhanced gasification, DME15, Diesel, Fuel replacement, LCA",

author = "Marco Tomatis and {Mahmud Parvez}, Ashak and Afzal, {Muhammad T.} and Sannia Mareta and Tao Wu and Jun He and Tianbiao He",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Elsevier Ltd",

year = "2019",

month = oct,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115627",

language = "English",

volume = "254",

journal = "Fuel",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Utilization of CO2 in renewable DME fuel production

T2 - A life cycle analysis (LCA)-based case study in China

AU - Tomatis, Marco

AU - Mahmud Parvez, Ashak

AU - Afzal, Muhammad T.

AU - Mareta, Sannia

AU - Wu, Tao

AU - He, Jun

AU - He, Tianbiao

PY - 2019/10/15

Y1 - 2019/10/15

N2 - This work aimed to evaluate the environmental performance of single-step dimethyl ether (DME) production system through CO2-enhanced gasification of gumwood. The proposed CO2-enhanced gasification based bio-DME production process was compared systematically with the conventional approach in terms of life cycle assessment (LCA) impacts by using SimaPro software. Overall, the LCA results revealed that bio-DME fuel produced from CO2-enhanced process significantly reduced the burden on climate change, toxicity and eco-toxicity by at least 20%. This decrement was mostly attributed to low feedstock consumption, high-energy recovery and CO2 utilization in the CO2-enhanced process. Over 53% contribution in all impact categories were contributed by the gasifier unit, mainly due to its high energy intensity (over 60% of the total energy requirement). Moreover, the effect of replacing diesel by bio-DME or diesel/DME blend as an automotive fuel was assessed in this study. The scenario of using pure DME resulted on significant reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by 72%, and of its impact on both human health and ecosystem (by 55% and 68%, respectively). The reduction of GHG emissions were caused by the carbon neutrality of bio-DME. Utilization of DME also limited the emissions of carcinogenic particulate such as diesel soot and therefore, decreased the toxicity of traffic emissions. The second scenario was to utilize DME15 (15% DME by wt in diesel) as an automotive fuel. However, only minor decreases, up to 7%, of the environmental impact were observed for DME15 compared to those estimated for pure diesel. Thus, the present study demonstrated that the CO2-enhanced process could greatly reduce GHG emission and environmental burden of DME production compared to the conventional method. Furthermore, bio-DME utilization as fuel for automotive applications can significantly decrease the hazard caused by traffic emissions.

AB - This work aimed to evaluate the environmental performance of single-step dimethyl ether (DME) production system through CO2-enhanced gasification of gumwood. The proposed CO2-enhanced gasification based bio-DME production process was compared systematically with the conventional approach in terms of life cycle assessment (LCA) impacts by using SimaPro software. Overall, the LCA results revealed that bio-DME fuel produced from CO2-enhanced process significantly reduced the burden on climate change, toxicity and eco-toxicity by at least 20%. This decrement was mostly attributed to low feedstock consumption, high-energy recovery and CO2 utilization in the CO2-enhanced process. Over 53% contribution in all impact categories were contributed by the gasifier unit, mainly due to its high energy intensity (over 60% of the total energy requirement). Moreover, the effect of replacing diesel by bio-DME or diesel/DME blend as an automotive fuel was assessed in this study. The scenario of using pure DME resulted on significant reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by 72%, and of its impact on both human health and ecosystem (by 55% and 68%, respectively). The reduction of GHG emissions were caused by the carbon neutrality of bio-DME. Utilization of DME also limited the emissions of carcinogenic particulate such as diesel soot and therefore, decreased the toxicity of traffic emissions. The second scenario was to utilize DME15 (15% DME by wt in diesel) as an automotive fuel. However, only minor decreases, up to 7%, of the environmental impact were observed for DME15 compared to those estimated for pure diesel. Thus, the present study demonstrated that the CO2-enhanced process could greatly reduce GHG emission and environmental burden of DME production compared to the conventional method. Furthermore, bio-DME utilization as fuel for automotive applications can significantly decrease the hazard caused by traffic emissions.

KW - Bio-DME

KW - CO-enhanced gasification

KW - DME15

KW - Diesel

KW - Fuel replacement

KW - LCA

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U2 - 10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115627

DO - 10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115627

M3 - Article

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VL - 254

JO - Fuel

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