Disruptive Innovations Lead to Feed Flexibility, Higher Material Recovery Rates, and Clean Energy Generation
In the last five years, interest in various types of waste-to-fuel and chemicals technologies has increased amongst industrial players, government agencies, and environmental organizations. The goal is to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and reduce the environmental and economic burden caused by landfills, through conversion of waste into clean resources for energy generation, chemical synthesis, and material development.
The importance for technologies that can effectively convert various types of waste into fuel and chemicals is also driven by end-consumer awareness about the negative impact of waste on the environment and human health. While technologies that can transform various domestic and industrial waste are available, they are not always environmentally friendly or even efficient. For example, more than 60% of all municipal solid waste is dumped in landfills and combusted for energy recovery through incineration processes. The percentage goes as high as 85 to 90% in certain regions of Asia-Pacific. The dumping of waste in landfills leads to the generation of methane, and its incineration results in the production of greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon monoxide (CO), and carbon dioxide (CO2). Continuous use of these disposal and treatment methods will have a significant impact on global warming and climate change. Such concerns and lack of effective waste handling, treatment, and recovery methods are ensuring that government and environmental organizations across the world focus on creating innovative ecosystems to develop and deploy waste-to-fuel and chemicals technologies.
This research service, Global Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Technology Growth Opportunities, summarizes various innovative technologies used in the conversion of different wastes to clean fuel and chemicals. The publisher has focused on technologies that are emerging in the waste-to-fuel and chemicals technology landscape. The technologies include: ionic gasification, nutrient recovery, solvent-based purification, CO2 hydrogenation, fast pyrolysis, and hydrothermal liquefaction. While nutrient recovery is well established in terms of technology deployment, continuous effort from stakeholders to improve these technologies and thus enable the direct conversion of obtained nutrients into end products such as fertilizers, makes it an emerging area of technology research and development.
The research focuses on mapping various waste-to-treatment technologies of key innovators and identifies their solutions’ potential end-use applications. Key innovations under each technology are identified with an aim to assess the most efficient way to convert waste into useful resources and generate clean energy, while keeping emissions rates to a minimum. Corresponding stakeholders are also noted along with details on technology readiness levels and deployment efforts.
Key topics this research covers:
- Waste-to-fuel and chemicals technology - overview and current technology trends
- Factors driving adoption and development of these technologies
- Technology ecosystem - recent innovations and stakeholders
- Technology analysis - comparative assessment of technologies and their TRL levels
- Noteworthy companies in action
- Growth opportunities in waste-to-fuel and chemicals technology
- Patent analysis of waste-to-fuel and chemicals technology
Table of Contents
1. Strategic Imperatives
1.1 Why Is It Increasingly Difficult to Grow? The Strategic Imperative 8™: Factors Creating Pressure on Growth
1.2 The Strategic Imperative 8™
1.3 The Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Industry
1.4 Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine™
1.5 Research Methodology
2. Growth Opportunity Analysis
2.1 Research Scope
2.2 Research Coverage
2.3 Key Findings
3. Waste-to-Fuel & Chemicals Technology: Overview
3.1 Classifying Different Types of Waste
3.2 Ways in Which Improper Waste Disposal Affects the Environment
3.3 Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Decrease Dependency on Fossil Fuels and Landfills
3.4 Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Technology: Key Drivers for Technology Development and Deployment
3.5 Factors Influencing the Growth of Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Technology Developments
3.6 Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Technologies: Key Challenges for Technology Development and Deployment
3.7 Factors Posing Challenges for Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Technology Development
4. Value Chain Analysis
4.1 Value Chain of Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Interlinked with Stakeholder Interactions Spread across the Value Chain
4.2 Closed Loop Systems Prevalent across all Links in the Value Chain
5. Key Technologies Transforming Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals
5.1 Disruptive Technologies with Potential Impact on Generation of Fuels and Chemicals from Waste
5.2 Disruptive Technologies Transforming Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Wastewater Treatment
6. Key Technologies and Innovations Transforming the Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Landscape
6.1 Ionic Gasification Offers Cleaner Syngas in Comparison to Traditional Gasification Technology
6.2 Cogent’s Ionic Gasifier Delivers Greater Feed Flexibility and High Conversion Rate
6.3 Comparative Assessment of Key Innovators in Ionic Gasification
6.4 Nutrient Recovery Promises a Sustainable Food Chain and an Alternative to Traditional Fertilizers
6.5 Ostara Nutrient Has the Highest Nutrient Recovery Rate of Approximately 90%
6.6 Comparative Assessment of Key Innovators in Nutrient Recovery
6.7 Fast Pyrolysis Meeting the Demand for Biomass Conversion with High Energy Efficiency
6.8 Key Stakeholders in Fast Pyrolysis Delivering Yield of 55-75%
6.9 Comparative Assessment of Key Innovators in Fast Pyrolysis
6.10 Solvent-based Purification Capable of Producing Polymers on Par with Virgin Materials
6.11 Key Innovators in Solvent-based Purification Focusing on Developing Cost-effective Processes
6.12 Comparative Assessment of Key Innovators in Solvent-based Purification
6.13 Greater Feed Flexibility and Low Energy-intensive Nature of HTL Promotes Growth
6.14 Technology Developers in HTL Promising Yields Greater than 75%
6.15 Comparative Assessment of Key Innovators in HTL
6.16 CO2 Hydrogenation Offers Alternative to Produce Clean Bio-Fuels from Renewable Sources
6.17 Carbon Recycling International (CRI) Delivering Methanol at High Quantities through CO2 Hydrogenation
6.18 Comparative Assessment of Key Innovators in CO2 Hydrogenation
7. Innovation Ecosystem: Companies to Watch
7.1 Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. Delivers Alternative Fertilizers through Its Waste Management Solutions
7.2 InEnTec Delivers Technology that Mitigates Tar Generation in Syngas for Any Type of Waste
7.3 CRI Offers Technology that Uses CO2 and Electrolyzed H2 for Renewable Methanol Generation
7.4 Licella Commercializes Its HTL Technology for Bio-Crude Generation
7.5 BTG Bioliquids Offers Easy Assembly Waste-to-Fuel and Chemical Plants
7.6 Polystyvert Offers Environmentally Friendly Technology for the Removal of Impurities from Polymers to Deliver High Quality Virgin Polymers
8. Growth Opportunity Universe
8.1 Growth Opportunity 1: Collaborations to Commercialize Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Technologies
8.2 Growth Opportunity 2: Infrastructure Development for Better Waste Collection and Processing
8.3 Growth Opportunity 3: Partnerships for Technology Development
9. Patent Analysis
9.1 IP Analysis Indicates an Increase in Patent Filing Activity in Thermochemical Waste Reforming, from 2018 to 2020
9.2 Wastewater Treatment Patent Filing Witnessed a Downward Trend, from 2018 to 2020
9.3 China Dominates in Carbon Capture and Utilization Patent Applications
10. Appendix
10.1 TRL - Explanation
11. Next Steps
11.1 Your Next Steps
Companies Mentioned (Partial List)
A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to:
- BTG Bioliquids
- CRI
- InEnTec
- Licella
- Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc
- Polystyvert
