Circular Business Model based on biofuels production from organic wastes

Authors
Muradin, Magdalena; Harazin, Paulina; Kulczycka, Joanna; Verhe, Roland; Clerq, Gilles

Abstract
The management of refused derived fuels (RDF) in the light of development of circular economy seems to be very important issue. Currently the RDF fraction is mainly landfilled or incinerated. The solution changing this situation and replaying for the waste management hierarchy can be the BioRen project funded by H2020 (grant no. 818310). It is a part of a holistic municipal waste management center RenaSci located in Belgium based on recycling of different waste fraction previously sorted. The implementation of BioRen project assumes processing of the residual organic wastes of non-recyclable RDF fraction into second generation biofuels. It concerns the enzymatic treatment process (saccharification and anaerobic fermentation) into bioethanol, isobutanol and glycerol tert-butyl ether (GTBE). Residues received in this process are transformed into biocoal in hydrothermal carbonization process (HTC). The aim of BioRen project is to close the loop of waste management and to increase the economic and environmental efficiency of a whole value chain converting organic wastes into biofuels. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the environmental and techno-economic performance of the BioRen project as a part of a municipal waste management center, taking into account the circular economy rules and requirements. This results can also be used to create the circular business model of residual organic waste management to apply in different countries. The scope of the study includes sorting, enzymatic treatment, distillation of ethanol, catalytic dehydration, etherification and hydrothermal conversion processes. The results show that the conversion of RDF organic fraction into biofuels brings a circularity goals closer and improve the performance of the whole waste management process.