Each year, the DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) assesses progress in their research and development efforts toward sustainable production of renewable fuels (DOE 2016). Technical and cost targets were previously established for the wet waste hydrothermal liquefaction and biocrude upgrading pathway and summarized in a design report (Snowden-Swan et al. 2017). The present report summarizes the research and associated techno-economic analysis (TEA) in support of the 2019 state of technology (SOT) assessment for this pathway.
Data from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Conversion hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) program for wet waste was used to update the pathway techno-economic analysis (TEA) for the fiscal year 2019 State of Technology (2019 SOT). An overview of the current process model, experimental data and plant economics for the SOT is presented.