The application of solid biofuels as a source of process energy in Mexico: case studies using agave and coffee waste

In recent years, the use of solid biofuels (SBF) in combustion systems to generate industrial heat has become more common as they are renewable, potentially carbon neutral, and able to support an energy transition away from fossil fuels. However, despite the ready availability of waste biomass in Mexico and its suitability for incineration, the development of SBFs as a fuel source had lagged behind other countries. Promoting the use of SBF requires technical, sustainability, and economic feasibility studies to identify optimization opportunities for known systems. This article presents two technical, economic, and environmental feasibility studies of the use of SBF for process heat. Carbon dioxide emissions and economic feasibility were compared to fossil fuels to ascertain whether SBFs could be useful as a transition fuel in the medium term. Finally, some circumstances where the implementation of SBF in an industrial process could be feasible were identified.