Exergy and Life Cycle Analyses of Thermochemical Waste Conversion Technologies

Thermochemical conversion technologies produce eco-friendly products like biochar, bio-oil, and syngas which have a wide variety of applications in the transportation and chemical industries. Nonetheless, about 95% of the energy used to produce these bioproducts is sourced from fossil fuels which dissipate lots of energy and other emissions into the environment and eventually reduce the exergetic efficiencies of thermochemical conversion technologies. The adoption and implementation of sustainability criteria and principles in thermochemical conversion technologies as well as continuous process and equipment improvement would help reduce exergy destruction and environmental burdens. This chapter discusses the thermo-environmental sustainability of conventional and newly developed thermochemical conversion technologies like combustion, gasification, plasma pyrolysis, microwave-assisted pyrolysis, etc. via the exergy and life cycle assessment tools. Exergetic life cycle analysis (ExLCA) would help pinpoint locations of quality energy inefficiencies and evaluate the impacts of products and processes on the environment.