Abstract
Energy-driven biorefineries can be designed considering biotechnological and thermochemical conversion pathways. Nevertheless, energy and environmental comparisons are necessary to establish the best way to upgrade lignocellulosic biomass and set the requirements of these processes in different scenarios. This paper aims to evaluate experimentally a biorefinery producing energy vectors using coffee-cut stems (CCS) as feedstock. The obtained yields were the basis for energy and environmental analysis, in two different biorefinery scenarios: (i) production of bioethanol and biogas and (ii) production of syngas and electricity. The energy results indicated that the overall energy efficiency calculated in the first scenario was only 9.15%. Meanwhile, the second biorefinery configuration based on thermochemical routes presented an energy efficiency value of 70.89%. This difference was attributed to the higher consumption of utilities in the biorefinery based on biotechnological routes. The environmental results showed that the impact category of climate change for the first biorefinery (i.e., 0.0193 kg CO2 eq./MJ) had a lower value than that of the second process (i.e., 0.2377 kg CO2 eq./MJ). Thus, the biorefinery based on the biotechnological route presented a better environmental performance. Additionally, the results for both biorefineries allowed concluding that the inclusion of by-products and co-products in the calculation of the environmental analysis can dramatically affect the results.
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Aristizábal-Marulanda and Cardona-Alzate express their acknowledgments to Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Colciencias), call 727 of 2015 (grant number 201010017510). Solarte-Toro and Cardona-Alzate express their gratitude to the research program entitled “Reconstrucción del tejido social en zonas posconflicto en Colombia” SIGP code: 57579 with the project entitled “Competencias empresariales y de innovación para el desarrollo económico y la inclusión productiva de las regiones afectadas por el conflicto colombiano” SIGP code 58907. Contract number: FP44842-213-2018.
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This study is supported by the Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Colciencias), call 727 of 2015 (grant number 201010017510).
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Aristizábal-Marulanda, V., Solarte-Toro, J.C. & Cardona Alzate, C.A. Study of biorefineries based on experimental data: production of bioethanol, biogas, syngas, and electricity using coffee-cut stems as raw material. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 24590–24604 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09804-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09804-y