Economic tradeoff between biochar and bio-oil production via pyrolysis

Jonathan Yoder (), Suzette Galinato (), David Granatstein and Manuel Perez ()
Additional contact information
Manuel Perez: School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University

No 2009-25, Working Papers from School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University

Abstract: This paper examines some of the economic tradeoffs in the joint production of biochar and bio-oil from cellulosic biomass. The pyrolysis process can be performed with different final temperatures, and with different heating rates. While most carbonization technologies operating at low heating rates result in higher yields of charcoal, fast pyrolysis is the technology of choice to produce bio-oils. Varying operational and design parameters can change the relative quantity and quality of biochar and bio-oil produced for a given feedstock. These changes in quantity and quality of both products affect the potential revenue from their production and sale. We estimate quadratic production functions for biochar and bio-oil. The results are then used to calculate a product transformation curve that characterizes the yields of bio-oil and biochar that can be produced for a given amount of feedstock, movement along the curve corresponds to changes in temperatures, and it can be used to infer optimal pyrolysis temperature settings for a given ratio of biochar and bio-oil prices.

Keywords: biochar; bio-oil; pyrolysis; biomass conversion; economic tradeoff (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q42 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://faculty.ses.wsu.edu/WorkingPapers/Yoder/WP2009-25.pdf First version, 2009 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden (http://faculty.ses.wsu.edu/WorkingPapers/Yoder/WP2009-25.pdf [307 Temporary Redirect]--> https://ses.wsu.edu/faculty/)

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:wsu:wpaper:yoder-8

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Danielle Engelhardt ().