Chapter 30 - Computer-aided environmental and technoeconomic analyses as tools for designing biorefineries under the circular bioeconomy approach

Abstract

Nowadays, there is a keen awareness of studying new ways to achieve resource-efficient transforming biosources and renewable materials. Biomass is expected to serve as a platform for producing several chemical components while meeting economic, environmental, and technical targets. As a result, the circular bioeconomy has emerged to integrate minimization of environmental impacts, biomass valorization, and multiproduct generation through computer-aided and modeling tools. This chapter presents environmental and technoeconomic analyses of a multifeedstock biorefinery to produce ethanol and succinic acid from lignocellulosic biomass. The plant was designed to process 68,500 t/year of empty banana fruit bunches and 275,470 t/year of yucca residues (including stems and peels). The system was modeled through Aspen Plus software. The feedstock flow was set based on reported data and the availability of these materials in Northern Colombia. Environmental impacts were estimated using the Waste Reduction Algorithm. The economic analysis included estimating financial indicators such as net present value, discounted payback period, and economic potentials. This was accompanied by the calculation of capital expenditures and operational expenditures. The results revealed that this biorefinery represents a promising alternative for the growth of the agroindustry productive chain in Northern Colombia under the circular bioeconomy principles since both economic and environmental showed promising outcomes.