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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Life Cycle Analysis and Life Cycle Costing for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management and Materials Redeployment to Support ARPA-E’s Potential Program on Waste to Energy and Materials

Municipal solid waste infrastructure in the United States contains complex supply chains to transport, sort, and sequester waste. This project developed models to estimate the environmental and economic costs of waste infrastructure in the U.S. using data from several municipalities. Life cycle costing (LCC) models were developed for waste management relevant supply chain steps, including waste collection, sorting, landfilling, waste-to-energy, ash processing, and recycling. A waste-to-materials and energy (WTM&E) life cycle analysis (LCA) and LCC dashboard was developed in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and an LCC tool was developed for additional analysis.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Techno-economic analysis and life-cycle analysis of two light-duty bio-blendstocks: isobutanol and aromatic rich hydrocarbons

Isobutanol and aromatic-rich hydrocarbons (ARHC) are two biomass-derived high octane blendstocks that could be blended with petroleum gasoline for use in optimized spark-ignition engines in light-duty vehicles, potentially increasing engine efficiency. To evaluate technology readiness, economic viability, and environmental impacts of these technologies, we use detailed techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life-cycle analysis (LCA). We assumed isobutanol is produced via biochemical conversion of an herbaceous feedstock blend while ARHC is produced via thermochemical conversion of a woody feedstock blend.The minimum estimated fuel selling price (MFSP) of isobutanol ranged from $5.57/gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) based on today’s technology to $4.22/GGE with technology advancements. The MFSP of ARHC could decline from $5.20/GGE based on today’s technology to $4.20/GGE as technology improves. Both isobutanol and ARHC offer about 73% GHG emission reduction relative to petroleum gasoline per LCA of these two bio-blendstocks. On the other hand, water consumption in the production of both bio-blendstocks exceeds that of conventional gasoline although process engineering offers routes to cutting water consumption. Over their life cycles, both isobutanol and ARHC emit more NOx and PM2.5 than petroleum gasoline.Improving the energy efficiency and lowering air emissions from agricultural equipment will reduce the life-cycle air pollutant emissions of these bio-blendstocks.

techno-economic analysis, life-cycle analysis, bio↗
DOE OSTI2022

Techno-economic Analysis and Life-Cycle Analysis of Renewable Diesel Fuels Produced with Waste Feedstocks

Wet waste feedstocks represent an important category of resources that could be utilized to produce biofuels. Diversion of the wet waste resources from going through conventional waste management practices to utilization as feedstocks for energy production also benefits from avoided cost and pollutant emissions of waste management and disposal. This study investigates the economic and environmental implications of producing bio-blendstocks for mixing controlled compression ignition (MCCI) engines from two waste-to-fuel pathways: hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) from yellow grease, and swine manure hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) followed by biocrude upgrading. Detailed process models were developed for both pathways, which informed the techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life-cycle analysis (LCA). Conventional swine manure management practice was also modeled in detail as the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario for the swine manure HTL pathway. The estimated minimum fuel selling prices (MFSP) were $4.47/gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) and $3.57/GGE for the yellow grease to HEFA and swine manure HTL pathways, respectively. The life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the two pathways were 11.2 and -33.3 g CO2e/MJ, respectively, for the yellow grease to HEFA and swine manure HTL pathways. The credits of avoided emissions from conventional swine manure management were the main reason for the negative GHG emissions of the swine manure HTL pathway. The marginal GHG emissions abatement costs were estimated to be $100 – $253/tonne CO2e and $5 – $103/tonne CO2e for the yellow grease HEFA and swine manure HTL pathways, respectively, for a diesel price ranging between $2.0/GGE and $3.5/GGE. Since the yellow grease HEFA pathway is already commercialized, it can benefit from the $200/tonne carbon credit in the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) market, which could help the yellow grease HEFA pathway to achieve near-zero marginal GHG emissions abatement cost.

renewable diesel, techno economic analysis, life c↗
DOE OSTI2018

Life-cycle analysis of integrated biorefineries with co-production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals: co-product handling methods and implications: Co-product handling methods and implications of life-cycle analysis of biofuel and bio-chemical co-producing biorefineries

New integrated biorefinery (IBR) concepts are being investigated to co-produce hydrocarbon fuels and high-value bio-based chemicals to improve the economic viability of IBRs, to enhance biomass resource utilization efficiencies, and to maximize potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. Unlike fuel-only biorefineries, IBRs may co-produce a significant amount of bio-based chemicals, whose emission implications for specific biorefinery products and the biorefinery as a whole need to be evaluated. We discuss this in principle and apply three sets of co-product handling methods to conduct life-cycle analysis (LCA) of modeled IBRs with co-production of two bioproduct examples - succinic acid and adipic acid - alongside a renewable diesel blendstock fuel product. The LCA results for the specific co-product handling methods that were examined shed light on potential artifacts of product-specific LCA with selected co-product methods. We discuss the advantages and limitations of each method and conclude that (i) a system-level or 'black-box' LCA allocation method is too simplistic to reflect appropriately the GHG burdens of distinctly different processing trains for fuels and chemicals in the IBR context, and (ii) the displacement method is the only co-product handling method that accounts fully for the emission effects of both the fuel product and the non-fuel bio-based co-products in the IBRs within the context of the existing fuel-focused GHG regulatory framework. Alternatively, biorefinery system-level LCA combines benefits of individual products to offer a complete picture. This system-level LCA approach offers a holistic LCA without somewhat arbitrary decisions either on an allocation basis or by the selection of an evaluation metric based on specific products.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Sustainable aviation fuel from ethanol: Techno-economic analysis and life cycle analysis

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is crucial for improving energy security, enhancing domestic production, and reducing carbon emissions in the aviation sector. Among various SAF production technologies, the ethanol-to-jet (ETJ) pathway is a promising option due to its economic viability and technological maturity. This study integrates a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and a life cycle analysis (LCA) to evaluate emissions reduction strategies for SAF production via the ETJ pathway, considering use of ethanol derived from both corn grain and corn stover. Conventional corn grain-derived ETJ fuel reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 22 % compared to fossil jet fuel, with potential reductions of 26 %–96 % when incorporating renewable energy sources, with a 6 %–32 % increase in the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP). Corn stover-derived ETJ achieves a 77 % GHG reduction but with higher MFSPs compared to corn grain ETJ. Carbon capture and storage (CCS without considering the cost for piping and sequestration, only compression) reduces the emissions of corn grain-derived ETJ by up to 32 gCO 2 e/MJ and enables negative emissions for corn stover-derived ETJ, with MFSP increases ranging from 1 % to 22 %. While carbon capture and utilization (CCU) increase ethanol yield by 47 %, it raises MFSPs by 54 % due to high electricity demand. Sustainable farming practices provide only limited carbon intensity (CI) reductions individually but do offer cumulative benefits when combined. These findings highlight the trade-offs between cost and environmental impact, providing insights to optimize SAF production strategies and support aviation sector goals for emissions reduction.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Techno-economic analysis and life cycle analysis of renewable natural gas production from brewery wastewater via ex-situ methanation processes

As sustainability becomes increasingly critical, the brewing industry encounters challenges in managing high-organic-content wastewater, a promising renewable energy source. This study evaluates the economic feasibility and environmental impacts of converting brewery wastewater into renewable natural gas (RNG) through anaerobic digestion and biogas upgrading, with an emphasis on different hydrogen sources for biomethanation. Four scenarios were analyzed: Scenario 1 uses purchased hydrogen, while Scenarios 2–4 use renewable hydrogen from microbial electrolysis cells and water electrolyzers. Results show that capital investments for processing 139 MT/h of wastewater, yielding 208 m 3 /h of RNG, range from 10.6 M to 31.9M USD, with estimated minimum selling prices of RNG between 2.25 and 4.37 USD/m 3 . Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions span from -21 to 32g CO 2 -equivalent per MJ of RNG. Further, this study presents key economic and environmental metrics for RNG production from brewery wastewater, offering insights to enhance sustainability in brewery wastewater management.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Life cycle analysis of polylactic acids from different wet waste feedstocks

Producing a valuable chemical product through diversion of wet wastes can simultaneously resolve the problems associated with increasing wastes and greenhouse gas emissions from conventional chemical production processes. In this work, we investigated the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, water, and fossil-fuel consumption for waste-derived polylactic acids (PLA) from three different waste feedstocks, namely wastewater sludge, food waste, and swine manure, using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. The decarbonization potential of replacing fossil-based resins with the waste-derived polymer was also investigated. The results show that swine manure-to-PLA pathway was the least carbon intensive (—1.4 kgCO 2 e/kg) among the three waste-to-PLA pathways on a cradle-to-grave basis, followed by the food waste case (—1.3 kgCO 2 e/kg) and then by the wastewater sludge case (0.6 kgCO 2 e/kg). In the baseline scenario, all three waste-to-PLA pathways were less carbon intensive than both fossil-based PET and HDPE on a cradle-to-grave basis: 66% (vs. PET) and 56% (vs. HDPE), 171 and 192%, 181 and 205% reduction in GHG emissions for wastewater sludge-, food waste-, and swine manure-to-PLA pathway, respectively. For all sensitivity cases investigated, the food waste- and swine manure-to-PLA pathways were significantly less carbon intensive than their fossil-counterparts. In terms of the annual decarbonization potential of replacing fossil-based PET or HDPE, the wastewater sludge- and food waste-pathway showed higher mitigation potential than the swine manure-pathway: i) 18–28 kilotons CO 2 e-reduction per year for wastewater sludge pathway; ii) 23–26 kTCO 2 e-reduction/yr for food waste pathway; and iii) about 5 kTCO 2 e-reduction/yr for swine manure pathway depending on the type of conventional resin replaced. However, given the abundant availability of the swine manure feedstocks across the United States, the decarbonization potential of swine manure-based pathway can also increase as the plant capacity or the number of plants grow.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Life Cycle Analysis of Natural Gas Extraction and Power Generation

This analysis calculates the life cycle environmental burdens for natural gas systems. Two system boundaries are used: a cradle-to-gate boundary that allows analysis of the natural gas supply chain, and a cradle-to-grave boundary that allows analysis of electricity produced from natural gas. For the cradle-to-gate boundary, the functional unit (i.e., the delivered service) is 1 MJ of natural gas delivered by local distribution companies. When the boundaries are expanded to include power generation, the functional unit is the delivery of 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity to the consumer.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Techno-economic and Life Cycle Analysis of MixAlco® Processes for Mixed Alcohol Production from Brown Algae

The need for producing renewable fuels from biomass has increased due to depleting fossil resources and environmental concerns. However, the low fraction of biomass carbon converted to product is an undeniable drawback for most current biofuel productions from fermentation due to undecomposed lignin in biomass composition and carbon loss as CO 2 . In this work, two main production routes of the MixAlco® process, the ketonization route (KR) and esterification route (ER) are evaluated for the mixed alcohol production by brown algae, a third-generation biomass without lignin. A novel fermentation process using syntrophic bacteria consortia (SBC) is developed to produce acetic acid from waste gas produced by KR and ER process. The paper investigates the integrated flowsheet for these alternative routes, using techno-economic and life cycle analysis to compare the minimum selling price and environmental impacts. From TEA, we find that the overall costs for KR and ER are lower than the SBC processes. The cost of ketonization routes is lower than esterification routes. The capital cost and operating cost for the ER+SBC process are the highest. Raw materials and utilities are the two major costs for all the processing routes examined. Here, the MSP for the ER+SBC process is the lowest out of all four routes. ER process performs the best in terms of environmental impacts except in water depletion compared with other processes, while the KR process performs the worst regarding the environmental metrics.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Field-to-Fuel Performance Testing of Lignocellulosic Feedstocks for Fast Pyrolysis and Upgrading: Techno-economic Analysis and Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Analysis

This work shows preliminary results from techno-economic analysis and life cycle greenhouse gas analysis of the conversion of seven (7) biomass feedstocks to produce liquid transportation fuels via fast pyrolysis and upgrading via hydrodeoxygenation. The biomass consists of five (5) pure feeds (pine, tulip poplar, hybrid poplar, switchgrass, corn stover) and two blends. Blend 1 consists of equal weights of pine, tulip poplar and switchgrass, and blend 2 is 67% pine and 33% hybrid poplar. Upgraded oil product yield is one of the most significant parameters affecting the process economics, and is a function of both fast pyrolysis oil yield and hydrotreating oil yield. Pure pine produced the highest overall yield, while switchgrass produced the lowest. Interestingly, herbaceous materials blended with woody biomass performed nearly as well as pure woody feedstock, suggesting a non-trivial relationship between feedstock attributes and production yield. Production costs are also highly dependent upon hydrotreating catalyst-related costs. The catalysts contribute an average of ~15% to the total fuel cost, which can be reduced through research and development focused on achieving performance at increased space velocity (e.g., reduced catalyst loading) and prolonging catalyst lifetime. Green-house-gas reduction does not necessarily align with favorable economics. From the greenhouse gas analysis, processing tulip poplar achieves the largest GHG emission reduction relative to petroleum (~70%) because of its lower hydrogen consumption in the upgrading stage that results in a lower natural gas requirement for hydrogen production. Conversely, processing blend 1 results in the smallest GHG emission reduction from petroleum (~58%) because of high natural gas demand for hydrogen production.

Analysis↗
DOE OSTI2019

Technoeconomic and Life-Cycle Analysis of Single-Step Catalytic Conversion of Wet Ethanol into Fungible Fuel Blendstocks

Technoeconomic and life-cycle analyses are presented for catalytic conversion of ethanol to fungible hydrocarbon fuel blendstocks, informed by advances in catalyst and process development. Whereas prior work toward this end focused on 3-step processes featuring dehydration, oligomerization, and hydrogenation, the consolidated alcohol dehydration and oligomerization (CADO) approach described here results in 1-step conversion of wet ethanol vapor (40 wt% in water) to hydrocarbons and water over a metal-modified zeolite catalyst. A development project increased liquid hydrocarbon yields from 36% of theoretical to >80%, reduced catalyst cost by an order of magnitude, scaled up the process by 300-fold, and reduced projected costs of ethanol conversion 12-fold. Current CADO products conform most closely to gasoline blendstocks, but can be blended with jet fuel at low levels today, and could potentially be blended at higher levels in the future. Operating plus annualized capital costs for conversion of wet ethanol to fungible blendstocks are estimated at $2.00/GJ for CADO today and $1.44/GJ in the future, similar to the unit energy cost of producing anhydrous ethanol from wet ethanol ($1.46/GJ). Including the cost of ethanol from either corn or future cellulosic biomass but not production incentives, projected minimum selling prices for fungible blendstocks produced via CADO are competitive with conventional jet fuel when oil is $100 per barrel but not at $60 per barrel. However, with existing production incentives, the projected minimum blendstock selling price is competitive with oil at $60 per barrel. Life-cycle greenhouse gas emission reductions for CADO-derived hydrocarbon blendstocks closely follow those for the ethanol feedstock.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reliability-Informed Life Cycle Warranty Cost and Life Cycle Analysis of Newly Manufactured and Remanufactured Units

Standard life cycle techniques such as life cycle warranty cost (LCWC) analysis and life cycle analysis (LCA) are used to respectively quantify the relative economical and environmental advantages of remanufactured goods while simultaneously identifying avenues for improvement. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on life cycle studies by incorporating reliability into LCWC analysis and LCA with the goal of improving long-term/multiple life cycle decision making. We develop a branched power-law model to incorporate the physical degradation mechanisms leading to reduced reuse rates of system parts over multiple life cycles. We then follow a standard LCA protocol to quantify the difference between a new unit and its remanufactured version in terms of environmental impact items such as abiotic depletion potential, global warming potential, and energy consumption. We then devise four practical warranty policies that vary in the choice of replacement and/or provision for extended warranty. All possible replacement scenarios for multiple life cycles are explored for each policy and a mathematically rigorous framework is provided, where the reliability information is used to calculate probabilistic LCWC and life cycle impact items. This reliability-informed LCWC analysis and LCA framework enables design engineers to compare design options and warranty policies by quantifying both economical and environmental impacts to aid in decision making. Although the framework is presented in a general form applicable to any engineered system, we demonstrate the utility of this framework by using a case study of an infinitely variable transmission used in agricultural equipment.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Technoeconomic and Life Cycle Analysis of Synthetic Methanol Production from Hydrogen and Industrial Byproduct CO 2

Here CO 2 capture and utilization provides an alternative pathway for low-carbon hydrocarbon production. Given the ample supply of high-purity CO 2 emitted from ethanol and ammonia plants, this study conducted technoeconomic analysis and environmental life cycle analysis of several systems: integrated methanol-ethanol coproduction, integrated methanol-ammonia coproduction, and stand-alone methanol production systems, using CO 2 feedstock from ethanol plants, ammonia plants, and general market CO 2 supply. The cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions of methanol produced from the stand-alone methanol, integrated methanol-ethanol, and integrated methanol-ammonia systems are 13.6, 37.9, and 84.6 g CO 2 -equiv/MJ, respectively, compared to 91.5 g CO 2 -equiv/MJ of conventional methanol produced from natural gas. The minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) of methanol ($\$0.61-0.64$/kg) is 61-68% higher than the average market methanol price of $\$0.38$/kg, when using a Department of Energy target renewable hydrogen production price of $\$2.0$/kg. The methanol price increases to $\$1.24-1.28$/kg when the hydrogen price is $\$5.0$/kg. Without CO 2 abatement credits, the H 2 price needs to be within $\$0.77-0.95$/kg for the MFSP of methanol to equal the average methanol market price. With a CO 2 credit of $\$35$/MT according to tax credit per metric ton of CO 2 captured and used, the methanol price is reduced to $\$0.56-0.59$/kg.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗