1 Sustainability Assessment of the Coal/Biomass to Fischer-Tropsch 2 Fuel Processes 3 Siyu Yang, † Li Xiao, † Shiying Yang, † Andrzej Kraslawski, ‡,§ Yi Man, † and Yu Qian* ,† 4 † School of Chemical Engineering , South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640 China 5 ‡ Department of Process Engineering, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta 53851, Finland 6 § Department of Process Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz 90924, Poland 7 ABSTRACT: In recent years, developing alternative liquid to 8 fossil fuels has drawn much attention from world industry. In 9 China, the coal/biomass-based Fischer-Tropsch (FT) liquid 10 is a promising alternative to address the shortage of petroleum 11 supplies. However, there is a lack of systematic and 12 quantitative assessment of sustainability of these processes. 13 This paper proposes a multi-dimensional set of metrics to 14 assess sustainability performance of the coal/biomass to FT 15 liquids processes in China. The assessment indicates that the 16 coal-to-FT fuel process performs well in technical and 17 economic aspects, while unsatisfactorily in relation to environ- 18 mental features. Besides, the production potential of coal-to- 19 FT in China by 2020 is rather limited. On the other hand, the biomass-to-FT fuel process shows great potential for replacement 20 of petroleum-derived fuels and good environmental performance, although it does not perform well in terms of economic and 21 technical characteristics at present. Co-processing biomass with coal to make FT fuel is a preferable compromise option for its 22 low GHG emissions and good economic performance, although further investigations and technical improvements are needed. 23 KEYWORDS: Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, Coal-to-liquid, Biomass-to-liquid, Sustainability assessment, Metrics 24 ■ INTRODUCTION 25 The structure of energy sources in China is characterized as 26 “deficient in oil, lean in gas, while rich in coal”. With the rapid 27 development of China’s economy, oil consumption skyrocketed 28 in recent years, up to 492 million tonnes in 2012, of which 278 29 million tonnes were imported. 1 The prospects of high oil price, 30 petroleum depletion, and energy security have catalyzed 31 interest in using alternative resources such as coal, natural 32 gas, and biomass for replacement of oil. 33 Bioethanol, biodiesel, methanol, dimethyl ether (DME), and 34 Fischer-Tropsch liquid (FTL) have attracted much attention 35 as the alternatives to petroleum-derived transportation fuels. 36 Among them, FTL derived from coal and biomass emerged as a 37 promising alternative due to the following reasons: (1) FTL can 38 be directly used to replace petroleum fuel, while no significant 39 changes would be needed in infrastructure for fuel trans- 40 portation. (2) FTL has high quality, with respect to sulfur and 41 nitrogen contents, low aromatic content, and lower emissions 42 of HC, CO, NO X , and PM when compared to conventional 43 fuels. (3) It can accommodate the wide range of feedstock. For 44 example, coal, natural gas, or biomass can be converted to 45 syngas from which FTL is synthesized. They are called coal-to- 46 liquid fuels (CTL), gas-to-liquid fuels (GTL), or biomass-to- 47 liquid fuels (BTL). Moreover, coal and biomass can be co- 48 processed to produce FTL in a process called coal-and- 49 biomass-to-liquid fuels (CBTL). The abundance and relatively 50 low price of coal in China creates an opportunity to make FTL 51 using coal. However, the production in China of natural gas- 52 based FTL does not seem to be an attractive option due to the 53 scarcity of natural gas reserves. Biomass as a renewable resource 54 with a hydrocarbon structure has long been a focus of efforts 55 intended at making liquid fuel. Therefore, the main focus of this 56 paper is FT liquid fuels obtained from coal and biomass in 57 CTL, BTL, and CBTL processes. Many previous studies have 58 been devoted to evaluation of technical and economic aspects 59 of processes 2-4 for production of synthetic liquid fuel. 60 However, relatively modest effort was made to analyze the 61 social and environmental impact of those processes, despite the 62 fact that both aspects are very important when evaluating the 63 sustainability of large-scale industrial implementation. 5,6 64 Sustainability analysis and evaluation of the chemical and 65 energy aspects of the process can provide important hints for 66 their improvement. Moreover, they can offer guidance for 67 design of new processes, reduction of waste release, and 68 consumption of material and energy resources. 7 The previous 69 research aimed at application of the different methodologies to 70 capture sustainability of the chemical and energy processes, 71 including exergy, 8 eco-efficiency analysis, 9 and life cycle Special Issue: Sustainable Chemical Product and Process Engineering Received: September 4, 2013 Revised: November 14, 2013 Research Article pubs.acs.org/journal/ascecg © XXXX American Chemical Society A dx.doi.org/10.1021/sc400336e | ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX slw00 | ACSJCA | JCA10.0.1465/W Unicode | research.3f (R3.6.i4:4180 | 2.0 alpha 39) 2013/10/21 02:46:00 | PROD-JCAVA | rq_2948373 | 11/18/2013 09:14:33 | 8 | JCA-DEFAULT