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Greenhouse Impact of Peat-based F-T-diesel
FINLAND - Substituting transport fuels with biomass-based fuels has been presented as one of the options in climate change mitigation and reducing dependency on fossil oil.In Finland, production techniques of synthetic biodiesel have been developed, which are based on the gasification of biomass (i.e. Fischer-Tropsch diesel).
As a raw material for F-T-diesel production, peat can be used, which raises a lot of interest due to the large peat reserves in Finland. In this study, the greenhouse impact of peat-based F-T-diesel from the life cycle point of view was assessed.
The utilisation chains of peat and peatlands assessed were compared to fossil diesel and F-T-diesel based on logging residues and reed canary grass. The greenhouse impact is assessed by radiative forcing.
In this study, the greenhouse impact of different production chains was calculated using different assumptions. The reality of different assumptions was not assessed. Calculational time spans were 100 and 300 years.
The impact of peat-based F-T-diesel on the climate depends on the system boundaries, the initial situation and the after-treatment, and it varies when compared to the climate impact of fossil diesel as well as logging residues and reed canary grass-based fuels.
Greenhouse gas impact of peat-based F-T-diesel is higher compared to fossil diesel in many of the chains considered.
If peat is produced from cultivated peatlands, which are powerful sources of greenhouse gases, the greenhouse impact is lower than if peat is produced from forestry-drained peatland.
If peatland is utilised after peat production for afforestation or cultivation of reed canary grass and the produced biomass is then utilised for F-T-diesel, it lowers the total greenhouse impact of the F-T-diesel produced in the certain chain.
When peat-based F-T-diesel is compared to fossil fuel, the greenhouse impact is lower when the peat is produced from the cultivated peatland.
In addition to peat resource utilised the most remarkable impact on the greenhouse impact of peat-based F-T-diesel is the processing of fuel (losses and electricity) and end-use.
The greenhouse gas emissions from the production of the electricity used in the production process of F-T-diesel have a major impact on the total greenhouse impact.
Usually in a new function, which consumes electricity, the used electricity should be considered as marginal electricity, but in certain special cases, the used electricity can be low-emission electricity.
In this study, the used electricity in the F-T-diesel refining process was assessed to be both current typical marginal electricity and zero-emission electricity, which enables us to emphasize the impact of the emissions due to the electricity used.
The greenhouse impact of the peat-based F-T-diesel produced as an integrated production in the forest industry plant is lower than fossil fuels, when zero-emission electricity is used in the process and peatland is used comprehensively in F-T-diesel production, i.e. first peat-F-T-diesel is produced and then biomass produced in the after-treatment (afforestation) is also processed as F-T-diesel.
The use of carbon capture and storage in the F-T-diesel production process was also assessed.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has listed CCS as one of the significant means to mitigate climate change in the future.
In the production of F-T-diesel, carbon dioxide is separated in the process and major part of the separated CO2 (losses) can be captured, which reduces the greenhouse impact of biomass-based (peat, logging residues and reed canary grass) F-T-diesel.
If CCS is included in the F-T-diesel production, it decreases the greenhouse impact of peat and biomass-based F-T-diesel to the same level of impact as that of fossil diesel or below depending on the F-T-diesel production chain.
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