WP 5: Socio-Techno-Economic assessment

This Work Package focuses on modelling aspects of the CONVERGE process for the definition off the operating conditions and the assessment of the technology from technical, economic and social point of view. Modelling results will determine the technology performance, cost and environmental impact as well as suggest to WP2, WP3 and WP4 where to focus for improving the process.

Objectives

Investigations will concentrate on the green methanol for biofuel production, using waste feedstock as raw – material. The secondary biomass feedstock will be characterized and used as input information in the process modeling and simulation tasks (Tasks 5.2 and 5.4) and its supply chain will represent one of the upstream processes of the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) (Tasks 5.3 and 5.5). Based on process modeling and simulation tools the optimum economic layout will be identified for the CONVERGE technology. Another important issue of WP5, will be the LCA, which will compare the environmental footprints of the CONVERGE configuration to other green methanol production processes. It is expected
that this WP will emphasize the key advantages of CONVERGE technology in terms of energy efficiency, costs and environmental impact. The social impact will be also evaluated within this WP.

The specific objectives and tasks of this WP are:


• Produce secondary biomass supply chain evaluations for 4 distinct geographical regions; North Sea, Mediterranean, Central European and Scandinavian
• Evaluate the techno-economics and business cases for four secondary biomass / waste related resources for the CONVERGE configuration
• Evaluate the environmental impact of secondary biomass to biodiesel production using Life-Cycle-Analysis on a cradle-to-gate basis.
Specifically target added-value by-products available from the CONVERGE configuration with respect to BTX valorisation for refinery applications
Specifically target the valorisation of remaining green and purified CO2 produced from the SER either in BeCCS type applications, and as a green carbon source for other applications requiring non-fossil fuel-based carbon
• Improve biofuels climate performance to suit climate global strategies.