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Purpose This paper studies the carbon footprint and water scarcity footprint (WSF) of a milk protein, beta-lactoglobulin, produced by cellular agriculture and compares this to extracted dairy protein from milk. The calculations of the microbially produced proteins were based on a model of a hypothetical industrial-scale facility. The purpose of the study is to examine the role relative to dairy of microbially produced milk proteins in meeting future demand for more sustainably produced protein of high nutritional quality. Methods The evaluated process considers beta-lactoglobulin production in bioreactor cultivation with filamentous fungi T. reesei and downstream processing for product purification. The model considers four production scenarios in four different locations (New Zealand, Germany, US, and Australia) with a cradle-to-gate system boundary. The scenarios consider different sources of carbon (glucose and sucrose), different options for the fungal biomass treatment (waste or animal feed) and for the purification of the product. Allocation to biomass was avoided by considering it substituting the production of general protein feed. The carbon footprint and WSF (based on AWaRe factors) modelling is compared to calculations and actual data on extracted dairy protein production in NZ. The uncertainties of modelled process were addressed with a sensitivity analysis. Results and discussion The carbon footprint of microbially produced protein varied depending on the location (energy profile) and source of carbon used. The lowest carbon footprint (5.5 t CO2e/t protein) was found with sucrose-based production in NZ and the highest (17.6 t CO2e/t protein) in Australia with the glucose and chromatography step. The WSF results varied between 88–5030 m3 world eq./t protein, depending on the location, type of sugar and purification method used. The avoided feed production had a bigger impact on the WSF than on the carbon footprint. Both footprints were sensitive to process parameters of final titre and protein yield from sugar. The results for milk protein were of similar magnitude, c.10 t CO2e/t protein and 290–11,300 m3 world eq./t protein. Conclusions The environmental impacts of microbially produced milk protein were of the same magnitude as for extracted dairy protein. The main contributions were sugar and electricity production. The carbon footprints of proteins produced by cellular agriculture have potential for significant reduction when renewable energy and more sustainable carbon sources are used and combined with evolving knowledge and technology in microbial production. Similarly, the carbon footprint of milk proteins can potentially be reduced through methane reduction technologies.

Membrane-based concept comprising microfiltration and nanofiltration pre-treatments, reverse osmosis pre-concentration, and membrane distillation used for final concentration was applied for producing purified and concentrated recycled deicing fluid. Additionally, a techno-economic assessment was conducted to determine the economic viability of the recycling concept. By a straightforward membrane-based concept, ∼95% of solid and colloidal impurities together with certain deicing fluid additives such as colorants and surfactants could be efficiently removed (removal efficiencies of ∼90% and ∼93%, respectively), and resulting purified deicing fluid could be concentrated to ∼60 wt% glycol solution, enabling its recycling in deicing operations. Preliminary techno-economic assessment indicated that a membrane-based concept can be used as an economically viable alternative for recycling the spent deicing fluid at airports. The techno-economic case study at an airport consuming 4,000 tonnes of deicing fluid during 6 months annually showed the concept to be economically feasible when the price of purchased propylene glycol is over 1,000 EUR/tonne. In addition to the purchase price of the propylene glycol, the most important cost factors were labor cost and the annual consumption of deicing fluid. Integrating the membrane concept with other operations at airport has potential to decrease the labor cost and further improve the economic feasibility of the concept. HIGHLIGHTS Membrane concept was successfully utilized for purification and concentration of spent deicing fluid.; By the applied membrane concept, a glycol solution having ∼60 wt% of glycol could be produced.; Utilized concept was able to remove over 90% of impurities.; TEA indicated the concept to be economically feasible.; Integrating the operation of the concept with other operations at airport can potentially decrease the labor cost.

Carbon dioxide has recently been used as feedstock to produce high-performance polymers, such as flexible polyurethane foams. So far, only 20-30 % of the carbon in the feedstock polyols, used as building blocks for polyurethanes, has been from CO2 while the rest is fossil-based. Due to large market volumes of these polymers, millions of tons of CO2 could be utilized annually on a global scale.VTT is developing a concept where polycarbonate polyols are produced from biogenic CO2 and clean hydrogen. In the project, preliminary economic assessments for CO2 capture and production of bio-CO2 based polyols have been conducted. The economics of the concept was found to be very attractive with a short pay back time. Electricity needed for electrolysis and capital investmentannuity were found to have the greatest effects on the production cost.

Biogenic CO2 converted into hydrocarbons with renewable electricity can simultaneously provide raw materials and fuels, a positive climate impact and a healthy business. Integrated CO2 capture and utilisation (CCU) options benefit from a local CO2 source substantially reducing the CO2 transportation costs, energy integration and the possibility to utilise the produced fuels and chemicals on-site. The key objective of this paper is to find feasible utilisation pathways for biogenic CO2 in biomass driven industry sectors. The study includes techno-economic feasibility analyses of specific system operations from the viewpoint of operator or investor in different market scenarios. As the main results, operational costs and incomes as well as profitability indicators are presented for each CCU-pathway. The results from this work show that CO2-based fuels or chemicals are generally not yet competitive with traditional processes, but business cases may be identified via efficient process integration and taking advantage of the process flexibility possibility. The results are also much dependent on the chosen market parameters, especially on the assumed electricity market price.

This paper reports the further development of a Guideline (formerly Protocol) for sampling and analysis of tars from biomass producer gases. This Guideline is being developed in a project in the European Fifth Framework Programme with additional partners from Switzerland and North America. This paper gives the outline and principle of the Guideline. The Guideline is based on isokinetic sampling of particles and tar from the main producer gas duct, particle filtration at high temperature, gas cooling in a liquid quench, tar absorption in a solvent at low temperatures, an optional backup adsorber, and flow measurement and control. The Guideline gives a definition for Gravimetric tar which is the tar number to be determined by the Guideline. Besides, the Guideline gives procedures for compound analysis by GC-MS or GC-FID. Moreover, in this paper the major choices that were made to come to the first version of the Guideline are explained. Finally, at the end of the paper it is described how and on what time scale the development of the Guideline will be completed. This paper does not contain the full text of the Guideline. This full text will be available on the Internet at www.tarweb.net.

The nitrogen oxide yield in a combustor burning an ammonia rich product gas from a bubbling bed gasifier has been investigated. The measurements showed a surprisingly small effect of the excess air in the combustor on the NOx emissions. To understand the reason for this behaviour the nitrogen chemistry in the combustor has been studied using CFD combined with a detailed description of the fuel-N chemistry. With higher oxygen excess a NOx yield of 22% is calculated compared to a measured NOx yield of 21 %. In the case with lower oxygen excess the corresponding numbers are 20% and 18%, respectively.

This paper reports on a Guideline (formerly Protocol) for sampling and analysis of tars from biomass producer gases. This Guideline was developed in a project in the European Fifth Framework Programme with additional partners from Switzerland and North America. In this paper, the final outline of the Guideline is given. This outline has been developed based on R&D work performed by the project partners, which was not performed in the EU project but was co-ordinated from it. Highlights of the R&D work are shown in this paper, which are the finding that formation and subsequent poor separation of tar aerosols are a major cause of poor collection efficiencies when sampling tars. The use of glass frits and the use of a higher temperature in the first impinger bottles avoid this problem of aerosol breakthrough. Tar measurements performed by the Guideline have been compared with tar measurements performed by the SPA method. The two methods basically give the same result for tar compounds ranging from phenol up to pyrene. For larger compounds, a deviation is seen. This paper does not contain the full text of the Guideline. This full text is available on the Internet at www.tarweb.net. Also the report on R&D results can be found on this Web Site.

This paper describes modifications to improve the feasibility of a pre-combustion CCS concept for a gas turbine combined cycle. A natural gas-fired greenfield combined heat and power (CHP) plant equipped with pre-combustion capture was used as a base case, for which various improvement options were identified, assessed and selected. The base case was modified using the selected improvement options, after which the investment costs were re-evaluated. The results showed that the investment cost can be reduced with 8 % by excluding the pre-reformer and the low temperature water-gas-shift reactor from the reforming process. The exclusion of the pre-reformer did not affect the performance of the plant, but the exclusion of the low temperature water-gas-shift reactor led to higher CO2 emissions.

This paper reports the further development of a Guideline (formerly Protocol) for sampling and analysis of "tars" from biomass producer gases. This Guideline is being developed in a project in the European Fifth Framework Programme with additional partn rs from Switzerland and North-America. This paper gives the outline and principle of the Guideline. The Guideline is based on isokinetic sampling of particles and tar from the main producer gas duct, particle filtration at high temperature, gas cooling in a liquid quench, tar absorption in a solvent at low temperatures, an optional backup adsorber, and flow measurement and control. The Guideline gives a definition for "Gravimetric tar" which is the "tar" number to be determined by the Guideline. Besides, the Guideline gives procedures for c mpound analysis by GC-MS or GC-FID. Moreover, in this paper the major choices that were made to come to the draft Guideline are explained. Finally, at the end of the paper it is described how and on what time scale the development of the Guideline will be completed. This paper does not contain the full text of the Guideline. This full text is available on the Internet at www.tarweb.net

Biogenic CO2 converted into hydrocarbons with renewable electricity can simultaneously provide raw materials and fuels, a positive climate impact and a healthy business. Integrated CO2 capture and utilisation (CCU) options benefit from a local CO2 source substantially reducing the CO2 transportation costs, energy integration and the possibility to utilise the produced fuels and chemicals on-site. The key objective of this paper is to find feasible utilisation pathways for biogenic CO2 in biomass driven industry sectors. The study includes techno-economic feasibility analyses of specific system operations from the viewpoint of operator or investor in different market scenarios. As the main results, operational costs and incomes as well as profitability indicators are presented for each CCU-pathway. The results from this work show that CO2-based fuels or chemicals are generally not yet competitive with traditional processes, but business cases may be identified via efficient process integration and taking advantage of the process flexibility possibility. The results are also much dependent on the chosen market parameters, especially on the assumed electricity market price.

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for pressurizing gas, wherein a gas (1) is treated in a multistage treatment comprising at least two ejector stages (3,9), a motive medium (2) which comprises liquid or steam at high pressure is injected to at least one ejector of the ejector stage (3), and the gas (1) is sucked into the same ejector in which the gas is mixed with the motive medium for forming a mixture (4), at least a part of the gas phase (6) is separated from the mixture (4) and is supplied to a next ejector stage (9) which comprises at least one ejector so that a second or later motive medium (8) which comprises liquid or steam at high pressure is injected to the ejector and the gas phase (6) is sucked into the same ejector in which the gas phase is mixed with the motive medium for forming a second or later mixture (10), and the gas is compressed by the motive medium (2,8) in the ejectors so that pressure of the gas is increased to a first pressure level in the first ejector stage (3) and pressure of the gas is increased from the previous pressure level to a second or later pressure level in the second or later ejector stage (9). Further, the invention relates to the use.Patent family as of 30.12.2022BR112019023517 A220200519BR2019112351720180509 CA3062730 AA20191107CA2018306273020180509 CN110740801 A20200131CN20188003757420180509 EP3634606 A120200415EP2018072620520180509 FI129944 B20221115FI2017000541420170509 FI20175414 A20181110FI2017000541420170509 US2020078730 AA20200312US2018061015720180509 WO18206850 A120181115WO2018FI5035020180509Link to current patent family on right