Bio-coal: A renewable and massively producible fuel from lignocellulosic biomass

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 6; no. 1; p. eaay0748
• Main Authors: Cheng, Bin-Hai, Huang, Bao-Cheng, Zhang, Rui, Chen, Ya-Li, Jiang, Shun-Feng, Lu, Yan, Zhang, Xue-Song, Jiang, Hong, Yu, Han-Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 03.01.2020
• Subjects: Applied Sciences and Engineering; SciAdv r-articles
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay0748

A new type of energy is produced via a fast pyrolysis coupled with atmospheric distillation from lignocellulosic biomass wastes. Development of renewable energy is essential to mitigating the fossil fuel shortage and climate change issues. Here, we propose to produce a new type of energy, bio-coal, via a fast pyrolysis coupled with atmospheric distillation process. The high heating values of the as-prepared bio-coals from the representative biomass are within 25.4 to 28.2 MJ kg −1 , which are comparable to that of the commercial coals. Life cycle assessment further shows that the bio-coal production process could achieve net positive energy, financial, and environmental benefits. By using available biomass wastes as feedstock, China is expected to have a total bio-coal production of 402 million tons of standard coal equivalent, which is equal to 13% of national coal consumption. It would grant China an opportunity to additionally cut 738 million tons of CO 2 emission by substituting an equal amount of coal with bio-coal in 2030.