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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #425966
Research Project: New Sustainable Processes, Preservation Technologies, and Product Concepts for Specialty Crops and Their Co-Products

Location: Healthy Processed Foods Research

Title: Techno-economic analysis of cost-competitive hard carbon production from biomass for sodium-ion batteries

Author
item LI, YILIN - Virginia Polytechnic Institution & State University
item Xu, Yixiang
item CHENG, YIFAN - Virginia Polytechnic Institution & State University
item O'KEEFE, SEAN - Virginia Polytechnic Institution & State University
item OGEJO, JACTONE - Virginia Polytechnic Institution & State University
item LIN, FENG - Virginia Polytechnic Institution & State University
item HUANG, HAIBO - Virginia Polytechnic Institution & State University

Submitted to: Bioresource Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/25/2025
Publication Date: 8/28/2025
Citation: Li, Y., Xu, Y., Cheng, Y., O'Keefe, S.F., Ogejo, J., Lin, F., Huang, H. 2025. Techno-economic analysis of cost-competitive hard carbon production from biomass for sodium-ion batteries. Bioresource Technology. 438. Article 133220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2025.133220.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2025.133220

Interpretive Summary: Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have gained increasing attention as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries, owing to the abundance and cost-effectiveness of sodium. This growing interest in SIBs has spurred the development of hard carbon as a high-performance anode material. Among the various methods for producing hard carbon, biomass-derived hard carbon stands out as particularly promising. Despite extensive research aimed at enhancing the electrochemical performance of biomass-derived hard carbon, the economic aspects of scaling up its production have not been thoroughly explored. Therefore, we present in our work, for the first time, a comprehensive techno-economic analysis of hard carbon production from agricultural biomass, using switchgrass (SG) as a model feedstock. Our results demonstrate that converting SG into hard carbon for use as a battery anode material is both technically and economically feasible at an industrial scale. Moreover, the hard carbon production process can be adapted to other biomass feedstocks, further expanding its potential applications. The results will therefore benefit material scientists, state and federal agricultural agencies and American growers who are interested in value-added utilization of agricultural biomass feedstocks.

Technical Abstract: This study presents a comprehensive techno-economic analysis of producing battery-grade hard carbon from switchgrass, using a hydrothermal pretreatment-assisted carbonization process. A process model was developed using Aspen Plus and assumed to have a throughput of 80 metric tonnes switchgrass per hour, 7,200 operating hours per year, and a plant lifetime of 30 years. Considering large amount of water in the pretreatment process, two processing scenarios were built based on wastewater treatment to determine the most cost-effective process. Scenario 1 directly discharges wastewater to municipal wastewater treatment plant and Scenario 2 employs an internal wastewater treatment to purify the wastewater through anaerobic and aerobic digestion and recirculate the purified water. The total capital investment of the process was estimated at 90.2M USD and 124.9M USD for Scenario 1 and 2, respectively. The annual operating cost was 115.8M USD and 107.7M USD, respectively. In comparison, Scenario 2 showed the lowest minimum carbon selling price at 1.6 USD/kg with a hard carbon yield of 19.2%. Overall, this study systematically evaluated the economic aspects of battery-grade hard carbon production from switchgrass, supporting the development of sustainable energy storage technologies.