Patent Application
20120287270
The invention hereby disclosed is related to the field of sustainability and environmental control in bioproduct production processes.
The objective of this procedure is a system and method for measuring GHG emissions associated to the conversion process of bioproduct.
Bioproducts include building materials, pulp and paper, forest products, biofuels, bioenergy, starch-based and cellulose-based ethanol, bio-based adhesives, biochemicals, biodegradable plastics, etc. Bioproducts are active subjects of research and development, and these efforts have developed significantly since the turn of the 20/21st century, mainly driven by the environmental impact of petroleum use. Bioproducts derived from bioresources can replace much of the fuels, chemicals, plastics etc. that are currently derived from petroleum. For example bioenergy is a sort of bioproduct which provides a renewable energy source obtained from biological materials, and includes: biofuels, bioliquids, biogas, renewable electricity and renewable thermal energy.
As an example of bioproduct, biofuels are gaining increased public and scientific attention, driven by factors such as oil price spikes, the need for increased energy security, and concern over greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Biofuels are used among others for ETBE production (gasoline additive), or for direct blending with gasoline or diesel. Being renewable energy sources, biofuels reduce CO2 emissions, and contribute to the security and diversification of the energy supply, while reducing the dependency on fossil fuels in the transportation and helping towards compliance with the Kyoto Protocol.
Greenhouse gases (sometimes abbreviated GHGs) are gases in an atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range being the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, among others.
Therefore it seems to be clear that it may be used bioproduct as a alternative for other fossil fuel derived; thus producing less GHG, but it needs to be know how much GHG does the production of said bioproduct involves, in order to determine whether the use of bioproduct instead other fossil fuels could benefit the reduction of emissions affecting global warming, hence it needs to be able to accurately calculate a GHG emission level associated to the entire process of producing said bioproduct, being said GHG emission level derived from the GHG emissions related to every single process used for the transformation of raw materials.
The object of the invention is a system and method for calculating GHG emissions associated to bioproduct industry. Said method measures not only GHG emissions related to the bioproduct production itself, but as the skilled person would appreciate, logistics and transportation for both the raw material, namely source material; and final product, namely bioproduct, should be accounted. It's worth mentioning that the object of the invention applies for different source material like: cereals (corn, wheat, barley, sorgho, . . . ), sugar cane, straw, energy crops, forestry material, forestry residues, organic waste, aquaculture and fishery residues, wine alcohol, oleaginous crops.
The system of the invention uses data captioned from a plurality of sensors and capturing means which are connected to data transmission means and arranged along the bioproduct production plant, at logistics facilities and transportation means used to deliver either source material to the production plant or the bioproduct, once produced, from said production plant. Said captioned data may comprise information, figures, statistics and pure information related to variables associated to GHG emissions of each element where at least one sensor is allocated.
The data captioned is then sent through the data transmission means to at least one database accessible by an emissions modelling module, embodied in software, which may comprise a processing unit, said processing unit may be embedded in the analysis and processing module o might be a standalone processing unit connected to said analysis and processing module in order to work together. As the skilled person would acknowledge said processing unit and emissions modelling module need at least storage means and memory, these two parts may be comprised in the processing unit, thus shared with the emissions modelling module; furthermore the database or databases might be stored at said storage means; but the storage means may be external or even networked storage means accessible by the processing unit and/or the emissions modelling module.
The data captioned is processed in order to get individual emission factors related to each activity, task, process or element involved in the transformation of the source material into bioproduct (including transportation and logistics, as stated above). The results of said procedure deliver individual emission factors which may be stored at the database for further actions or may be directly processed by the emissions modelling module in order to get a total GHG emissions value.
The processing unit runs the instructions needed to perform all the processes needed to get the method of the invention, which covers at least two main parts of bioproduct production activities. Said instructions might be embodied as software stored at the storage means or directly, maybe temporally, at the memory of the system, waiting to be called and executed.
Said instructions allow the system to accomplish the method of the invention, which mainly comprises two parts.
The first part covers bioproduct production processes involved in bioproduct production itself, carried out at the production plants, this first part involves measuring GHG emissions linked to:
Furthermore the method hereby described may also consider processes over bioproduct co-products when associated to those processes needed to obtain the co-product of the bioproduct production at the required sell conditions (as pellets and with a defined humidity). Said co-products produced along with the bioproduct may be pure waste products resulting from obtaining the bioproduct such as sewage water or may be valuable products like DDGS (Destilled Dry Grains with Solubles) which would need individual treatments like: solid/liquid separation, evaporation, drying process, pelletization; or said co-product may be a valuable product produced along with the bioproduct, In both cases emissions are produced and are thus duly accounted.
Different co-products may be considered, such as, among others: biofuels; bioliquids; biogas; chemicals; feed raw; renewable electricity, renewable thermal energy; bioplastics; resins and CO2.
Different tasks are considered under the previously defined stages, in all of them the energy and raw material consumption, as well as the wastes generation and will be perfectly identified and calculated.
GHG emissions associated with the bioproduct production process can be calculated according to the following formula, for the “n” previously identified steps:
In which:
The second part covers every GHG emission related to transportation and logistics of the source material and/or the bioproduct produced from said source material.
Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions) related to bioproduct industry is calculated from the data previously captioned or collected using the collecting means and/or different sensors. The calculation is carried out by using the following data total emissions from the production of bioproduct and TDER (Transport and Distribution emissions Rate). Said Emissions from transport and distribution, etc, include emissions from the transport and storage of source material and semi-finished materials and from the storage and distribution of finished materials, namely bioproduct, related to GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions produced by the at least one transportation means resulting from processing the at least one first variable related to GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions produced by said at least one transportation means.
Hence, the method of the invention allows the measurement of the amount of GHG emissions associated to bioproduct industry, starting from the source material, taking into account the transportation to the production plant, the processes carried out at the production plant, and the emissions produced during the delivery and distribution of the bioproduct produced at said production plant.
As will be explained below in greater detail, the amount of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions is calculated by adding up the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions corresponding to the transportation and delivery and the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions corresponding to the production of bioproduct.
According to what has been explained above, the system of the invention comprises:
The data regarding the at least one second variable related to GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions generated from the production of bioproduct at the production site collected by the plurality of sensors located at the production site and the at least one first variable related to GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions generated by at least one transportation means, may preferably be included in the at least one database.
The plurality of sensors are preferably adapted to monitor and report data selected from the group consisting of a flow rate, temperature, pressure, weight, moisture, flow composition, energy exported, particulate matter, gas composition, energy produced, energy consumed, raw fuel consumed, and waste stream.
The collecting means are preferably connected to at least one data source comprising relevant data related to emissions associated to the transportation means. The transportation means perform a transportation of raw material from the raw material production sites to the bioproduct production sites, as well as a delivery from the bioproduct production site. The transportation means go through routes which are selected using the route system. Preferably, the routes may be selected considering as a criterion the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions associated to the at least one transportation means performing said route.
The relevant data may comprise at last one of the following:
According to a preferred embodiment, the at least one processing unit comprises:
The data transmission means may be selected from the group consisting of: wired communication means, wireless communication means and near field communication means.
The bioproduct may preferably further comprise a co-product of bioproduct. The bioproduct may be biofuel like bioethanol or biodiesel, among others.
According to a preferred embodiment, the source material may be selected from the group consisting of: cereals, sugar cane, straw, energy crops, forestry material, forestry residues, organic waste, wine alcohol, aquaculture and fishery residues and oleaginous crops.
The system may preferably further comprise at least one interface to the processing unit, adapted to output a report of the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions level.
The GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions data associated to bioproduct industry may be preferably selected from the group consisting of:
For a better understanding of the present invention, reference will now be made, by way of example only, to the accompanying drawings in which:—
Following the reference signs adopted in
As depicted in
The method of the invention starts by retrieving from a plurality of sensors (3), by means of a GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions modelling module (4) using the processing unit and the data transmission means [not represented in the figures], GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions data associated to each process of bioproduct production related to at least one variable impacting GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions data resulting from bioproduct production at a bioproduct production facility (2) and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions data associated to the transportation means (5) used for the delivery of the produced bioproduct by means of collecting means [not represented in the figures].
Data sources considered for obtaining an emission factor for each one the transportation means (5) (needed for the transportation and delivery of the bioproduct), comprise data available from bibliography or databases comprising relevant data or direct use of fuel consumption as activity data and the emission factor for said specific fuel.
Some properties values are needed when the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions data is obtained from calculation. The list of properties used comprise biofuel density and biofuel Low Heating Value (LHV)
The method for measuring GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions associated to bioproduct industry of the invention using the system (1) previously described comprises the next steps:
According to another embodiment of the invention, a method for measuring GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions resulting from producing bioproduct from a source material at a site, the method comprising managing bioproduct trading activities, is described, wherein the method comprises:
where:
When the calculation is intended for bioproduct the units used are gCO2 eq/MJ bionergy and gCO2 eq/MJ co-product when the calculation is intended for the co-product of the bioproduct.
The method may further comprise the step of assigning a market value to each GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions level, as well as associating a market value to the produced bioproduct using the label comprising said GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions level.
The method may preferably additionally comprise the step of selecting at least one client from a client database wherein said database comprises: client data, a GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions level range accepted by the at least one client, and a market value range accepted by the at least one client.
It is also preferred that the method additionally comprises the step of distributing the produced bioproduct to the at least one client wherein said distribution is based on the a GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions level range accepted by the at least one client and/or the market value range accepted by the at least one client, in such a way that the at least one client is distributed only bioproduct with GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions level comprised in the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions level range accepted by the at least client and/or market value comprised in the market value range accepted by the at least one client.
The methods described consider that the at least one second variable used for calculating the Emission factor may be the same as well as different from at least one second variable used for calculating the Activity Data.
The step of calculating, by means of the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions modelling module, the at least one transport and distribution emission rate [TDER] related to GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions produced by the at least one transportation means from the at least one first variable impacting emissions of the GHG (greenhouse gas) collected by the data collecting means, is performed on a basis of a route selected using at least one route system adapted to allow selection of one route according to the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions associated to at least one transportation means performing said route.
In this preferred embodiment the processes needed for producing bioethanol or other bioproduct are considered to be listed as follows: milling, mashing, cooking, liquefaction, fermentation, distillation and dehydration, among others, as explained above; and for the distribution of finished materials (bioproduct) transport emissions, eight different types of transport (that cover the means of transports used in retailing operations) have been selected for calculating the distribution emissions: pipelines, diesel train, electrical train, diesel barge, biodiesel barge, diesel truck, and vessel.
In yet another embodiment of the invention, the method accounts emissions derived from the production of other kinds of bioproduct, such as renewable electrical energy obtained from the raw material by a gasification process of said raw material. Gasification is the thermal conversion of the raw material used as feedstock into a gas, a synthesis gas called syngas (which as the skilled person would acknowledge is a fuel itself) said gas is then used for powering a cogeneration unit which produces renewable electrical energy (electricity) and/or sustainable thermal energy (heat).
