Techno-economic analysis of a solar-driven biomass pyrolysis plant for bio-oil and biochar production

Pyrolysis has become one of the most attractive options for converting carbonaceous biomass into bio-oil or biochar. This study explores a novel solar pyrolysis process intended to produce both bio-oil and biochar, thereby improving carbon efficiency. Aspen Plus and SolarPILOT were used to model a 10 MW biomass pyrolysis plant thermally sustained by hot particles from a falling-particle solar tower receiver. A yearly analysis was carried out for three configurations to estimate the annual production of oil and biochar. The results showed that the hybrid plant, combining solar receiver and biochar backup combustor, leads to the lowest cost of bio-oil (18.7 <euro> per GJ, or 0.29 <euro> per kg) and a carbon efficiency of 83%. Whereas, the plant fully sustained by solar power achieves a carbon efficiency of 90%; however, it results in a significantly higher cost of bio-oil (21.8 <euro> per GJ, or 0.34 <euro> per kg) due to the larger size of particle storage and a lower capacity factor of the pyrolysis plant. In comparison, a conventional pyrolysis plant with no biochar production yielded the most expensive option in terms of the cost of produced bio-oil (27.5 <euro> per GJ) and features the lowest carbon efficiency (74%). Sensitivity analysis shows that the pyrolyzer Capex, operational cost, biochar market price, plant availability and discount rate significantly affect bio-oil production cost. Transforming conventional biomass pyrolysis through solar-driven pyrolysis with a falling particle receiver and intermediate hybrid solution reduces costs by 21% and 32% and emissions by 27.5 and 22.3 kgCO2 GJoil-1, respectively.