AUTHOR=Pacheco-López Adrián , Lechtenberg Fabian , Somoza-Tornos Ana , Graells Moisès , Espuña Antonio 

TITLE=Economic and Environmental Assessment of Plastic Waste Pyrolysis Products and Biofuels as Substitutes for Fossil-Based Fuels

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Energy Research

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/energy-research/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2021.676233

DOI=10.3389/fenrg.2021.676233

ISSN=2296-598X

ABSTRACT=The global economy is shifting towards more sustainable sources of energy. The transportation sector is a remarkable example of this fact, where biofuels have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional fossil fuels. This work presents a techno-economic and environmental assessment of existing liquid fuels in hard-to-decarbonize sectors and their emerging renewable substitutes. The comparison focuses on fossil-based, biomass-derived and plastic waste-sourced fuel alternatives that can be used in spark-ignition (gasoline) engines and compression-ignition (diesel) engines. Results for diesel substitutes prove a superior performance of plastic waste pyrolysis oil in terms of production cost reduction (-25% compared to diesel) and “well-to-tank” life cycle impact reduction (-54% human health, -40% ecosystems, -98% resources). Consequently, research and development towards conversion of plastic waste into fuels should be extended with the goal of making the technology more accessible and robust in terms of fuel quality. On the contrary, the results for the gasoline alternatives are not as conclusive: Bioethanol and ethanol from plastic pyrolysis have considerably lower impact on resource scarcity than gasoline (-80% and -35% respectively) and higher on the other two life cycle endpoint categories, but they have higher production costs when compared to gasoline (+57% and +130% respectively). While blends of gasoline with pyrolysis-sourced ethanol can reduce impacts on human health and ecosystems, blends with bioethanol entail lower impacts on resource scarcity and increase economic profitability. This allows fuel providers to offer trade-off solutions in form of blends based on their priorities.