Assessing Energy Consumption, Carbon Emissions, and Costs in Biomass-to-Gas Processes: A Life-Cycle Assessment Approach

Minwei Liu, Jincan Zeng, Guori Huang, Xi Liu, Gengsheng He, Shangheng Yao, Nan Shang, Lixing Zheng and Peng Wang ()
Additional contact information
Minwei Liu: Planning & Research Center for Power Grid, Yunnan Power Grid Corp., Kunming 650011, China
Jincan Zeng: Energy Development Research Institute, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou 510663, China
Guori Huang: Energy Development Research Institute, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou 510663, China
Xi Liu: Energy Development Research Institute, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou 510663, China
Gengsheng He: Energy Development Research Institute, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou 510663, China
Shangheng Yao: Energy Development Research Institute, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou 510663, China
Nan Shang: Energy Development Research Institute, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou 510663, China
Lixing Zheng: Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Peng Wang: Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: China has a huge potential for biomass utilization. Converting low-grade biomass into high-quality hydrogen and natural gas is of great significance in promoting the utilization of biomass resources and the achievement of carbon reduction goals. Based on the data of biomass collection, transportation, power generation, hydrogen production and gas production stages in China, this paper constructs a multi-chain hybrid whole-life process evaluation model for “electricity to gas” and comprehensively compares the energy consumption, carbon emission and cost of the two chains of “hydrogen production from biomass power generation” and “methane production from biomass power generation”. We comprehensively compare the energy consumption, carbon emissions and costs of biomass-to-hydrogen and biomass-to-methane technologies. Biomass natural gas is found to have significant advantages in terms of energy consumption, carbon emissions and economics compared to biomass hydrogen production. In order to promote the development of the biomass “electricity to gas” industry in China, this paper proposes that PEM electrolysis tanks can be used for hydrogen production, and the distance from the biomass feedstock collection to the hydrogen production chemical park should be optimized to reduce the whole-life-cycle cost. Biomass natural gas can buy time for the development of China’s hydrogen industry and infrastructure construction.

Keywords: biomass; life-cycle analysis (LCA); hydrogen production; methane synthesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/12/5209/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/12/5209/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:12:p:5209-:d:1417884

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().