Table 6 Techno-economic and environmental assessment for scaling-up microwave pyrolysis production system of corn stover. [^aBased on Table 5, ^bTotal cost of the microwave pyrolysis system include the reactor, microwave system, condensation system, N₂ gas, and temperature monitoring system was estimated based on previous work in microwave pyrolysis³³, considering 3% escalation factor per year (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/), [200000 + (200,000 × 3/100 × 12 year)] = USD272000), ^cAnnual yield of the biochar was 28 wt% from annual feedstock consumed (1125 tonne/year × 28 wt%/100 = 315 tone biochar/year), ^dAnnual yield of the bio-oil was 45 wt% from annual feedstock consumed (1,125,000 × 45 wt%/100 = 506,250 kg bio-oil/year). Considering the density of the bio-oil is 1.036 g/mL (~ 1 g/mL) Table 4, thus the annual bio-oil yield was estimated to be 506,250 L/year, ^eSelling price of biochar as fertilizer or soil conditioner and fuel in domestic cooking was estimated to be USD500/tonne, ^fSelling price of bio-oil for chemical and phenol extraction was estimated to be USD1/L, ^gNet annual income is equal to total annual revenues—total operation cost].

From: Process optimization and technoeconomic environmental assessment of biofuel produced by solar powered microwave pyrolysis