Title:
CARBOWERT: Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrothermal Carbonization Concepts Producing Char for Energetic and Material Use
Author(s):
Meisel, K., Clemens, A., Schulz, E., Fühner, C.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
The CARBOWERT project aims at contributing to climate protection by developing sustainable concepts of hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) of sewage sludge producing hydrochar. The HTC technology provides different opportunities for the valorisation of sewage sludge in new applications. Within CARBOWERT two applications have been investigated: Firstly, hydrochar can be used in the energy sector where it contributes to the substitution of fossil based electricity and heat. Secondly, the application of hydrochar in agricultural systems potentially leads to improved soil fertility and increased yields. The different HTC concepts are assessed and compared to conventional agricultural and energy production systems by means of life cycle assessments in order to identify the concept with the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) saving and thus with the highest contribution to climate protection. Contrary to our expectations the preliminary results show that the agricultural and energetic use of hydrochar causes more GHG emissions than their conventional systems whereas the difference of GHG emissions between the agricultural use and its conventional system is higher than for the energetic use. The additional implementation of an anaerobic digester for cleaning the process water and providing energy for the HTC process can possibly reduce the GHG emissions of the HTC based concepts and thus increase the GHG saving compared to their conventional systems.
Keywords:
electricity, heat, life cycle assessment (LCA), sewage sludge, soil fertility
Topic:
Biomass Conversion Technologies for Liquid and Gaseous Fuels, Chemicals and Materials
Subtopic:
Production of thermally treated solid biofuels
Event:
25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
3DO.9.3
Pages:
1126 - 1127
ISBN:
978-88-89407-17-2
Paper DOI:
10.5071/25thEUBCE2017-3DO.9.3
Price:
FREE
