Techno-Economic Feasibility and Spatial Analysis of Thermochemical Conversion Pathways for Regional Poultry Waste Valorization
Raaj R. Bora, Yanqiu Tao, Johannes Lehmann, Jefferson W. Tester, Ruth E. Richardson, Fengqi You
Abstract
This study examines prominent thermochemical conversion technologies, such as slow pyrolysis, fast pyrolysis, gasification, and hydrothermal liquefaction, for treating poultry litter in New York State (NYS). Nine cases involving combinations of the four technologies and different downstream processing options such as bio-oil upgrading and Fischer–Tropsch conversion are chosen based on the product distribution. High-fidelity process simulations are performed to derive the mass and energy balance. Economic performance for the nine cases varied widely with largely overlapping net present values, ranging from $10MM to $170MM (slow pyrolysis), $89MM to $314.5MM (fast pyrolysis), $28MM to $196MM (hydrothermal liquefaction), and $25MM to $234MM (gasification). Both pyrolysis technologies had 18% to 56% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the other technologies. GHG balances showed trade-offs with economic performance. Sensitivity analysis identified carbon credits, products' market price, and plant capacity as the most influential factors. Building one centralized biorefinery in NYS especially for fast pyrolysis was more economically feasible than building multiple smaller biorefineries (biochar breakeven price of −$128 to −$91/ton vs $74 to $93/ton). The trend for slow pyrolysis was similar but with comparatively little difference (biochar breakeven price of $59 to $96/ton for one biorefinery vs $76 to $91/ton for multiple biorefineries).