Authors: Patrick Brassard, St?phane Godbout, Lorie Hamelin
Identifier: CSBE21423
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Published in: CSBE-SCGAB Technical Conferences » 5th CIGR and AGM Quebec City 2021 » Special Session on Biochar

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Description: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently recognized biochar addition to soil as a carbon dioxide removal technique. Biochar is produced from the pyrolysis of biomass at high temperature (350-700?C) in limited-oxygen environment, with bio-oil and non-condensable gases as co-products. It is acknowledged that 65 to 90% of the carbon (C) in biochar is retained in soil over several decades, depending on pyrolysis parameters (mainly temperature). In this study, a consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) framework was applied to quantify the environmental performance of a pyrolysis biorefinery using primary forestry residues (PFR) as feedstock. Foreground data stemming from experiments with a pyrolysis auger reactor were used to define a scenario in which biochar (26.5% yield) sequesters C in soil (80% of C retained for > 100 years), bio-crude oil is used for heat production and the aqueous phase of bio-oil (wood vinegar) is used as a bio-fungicide. The pyrolysis scenario showed a reduction of 906 kg CO2e per dry ton of PFR collected as compared to the reference scenario (residues decay in forest). This gain is mainly due to the biochar C sequestered in soil. However, in six out of the fifteen other impact categories studied, the pyrolysis scenario presented a trade-off as its environmental impact was higher than the reference scenario. The results highlighted that the environmental performance of pyrolysis can vary according to many factors, including the biomass feedstock supply, the pyrolysis technology, the co-products yields, properties and uses and the identification of marginal technologies (i.e. technologies avoided).

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Date: 2021-06-11
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Conference name: 5th CIGR International Conference and CSBE-SCGAB AGM 2021, Quebec City,QC, 11-14 May 2021.
Session name: SPECIAL SESSION Biochar 1

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Publication type: Presentation
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Language 1: en
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Rights: Canadian Society for Bioengineering
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