Integral techno-economic comparison and greenhouse gas balances of different production routes of aromatics from biomass with CO₂ capture

The techno-economic performance and CO₂ equivalent (CO_2eq) reduction potential of bio-based aromatic production cases with and without CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) have been evaluated and compared to those of fossil-based aromatic production. The bio-cases include tail gas reactive pyrolysis (TGRP), catalytic pyrolysis (CP), hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), gasification-methanol-aromatics (GMA), and Diels-Alder of furan/furfural combined with catalytic pyrolysis of lignin (FFCA). The crude oil-based naphtha catalytic reforming (NACR) routes have GHG emissions of 43.4 and 43.9 t CO_2eq/t aromatics with and without CCS (NACR-CCS), respectively. Except for HTL, all the biomass cases with CCS show negative emissions between −6.1 and −1.1 t CO_2eq/t aromatics with avoidance costs ranging from 27.7 to 93.3 $/t CO_2eq. Under favorable conditions, GMA with CCS (GMA-CCS) has the lowest emissions (−14.6 t CO_2eq/t aromatics), while CP with CCS (CP-CCS) shows the lowest avoidance cost (12.3 $/t CO_2eq). All biomass based aromatics production techniques are currently at the laboratory or demonstration stages, except for CP, which has pilot plants. The results indicate that bio-based aromatics production, with their reasonable avoidance costs and low, or potentially negative, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, are an attractive option to compensate for the expected aromatic production shortages in the coming decades.