Editorial: Electricity-bioenergy hybrids: Solutions for improving the resource efficiency of biomass conversion

Modern bioenergy is a necessary component to achieving a net-zero emissions energy system. Bioenergy is especially important for the transport sector, and it can also provide renewable heat for industry, as well as low-carbon flexibility and security of supply for the power sector during clean energy transitions.

Sustainable biomass is also a limited resource that should be used as efficiently as possible. In addition to energy efficiency, biomass conversion processes should aim to achieve high carbon efficiency to minimize the need for land and to maximize the yields to bio-based products. Carbon efficiency can be significantly increased by using electricity as a co-energy source in biomass processing. This can be achieved either directly with electrical energy or indirectly through the use of electrolytic hydrogen.

This Research Topic is focused on solutions that can be used to improve the carbon and overall resource efficiency of biomass conversion with electricity as a co-energy source. In addition, concepts where biomass is used as a carbon source for the production of electrofuels or electrochemicals instead of carbon dioxide are included.

The published contributions cover several key aspects for the progress of these technologies, including processes that can use electricity in a flexible way to optimize process economics, or that can increase overall efficiency of the process with the help of electric heating.

Regarding concepts that can switch between “enhanced” and “biomass only” operation modes, Habermeyer et al. conducted a techno-economic analysis showing that the hybrid concept achieved 53% carbon efficiency compared to 35% of the biomass only concept. However, the higher carbon efficiency was achieved at a cost of higher production cost based on the Finnish day-ahead market.