Abstract
AbstractThe 2011 US Billion‐Ton Update1 estimates that there are enough agricultural and forest resources to sustainably provide enough biomass to displace approximately 30% of the country's current petroleum consumption. A portion of these resources are inaccessible at current cost targets with conventional feedstock supply systems because of their remoteness or low yields. Reliable analyses and projections of US biofuels production depend on assumptions about the supply system and biorefinery capacity, which, in turn, depend on economics, feedstock logistics, and sustainability. A cross‐functional team has examined optimal combinations of advances in feedstock supply systems and biorefinery capacities with rigorous design information, improved crop yield and agronomic practices, and improved estimates of sustainable biomass availability. Biochemical‐conversion‐to‐ethanol is analyzed for conventional bale‐based system and advanced uniform‐format feedstock supply system designs. The latter involves ‘pre‐processing’ biomass into a higher‐density, aerobically stable, easily transportable format that can supply large‐scale biorefineries. Feedstock supply costs, logistics and processing costs are analyzed and compared, taking into account environmental sustainability metrics. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Highlights
The study began by examining issues between biore finery capacity, reliable feedstock logistics, sustainability, and life cycle assessment
This study suggests that increasing the biore finery size to 5000 dry metric tons per day (DMT/day) will more than offset the minimum ethanol selling prices (MESP) increase associated with more expensive advanced uniform design (AUD) pre-processed feedstock
We demonstrated that conventional-bale system (CBS) has lower average logistics costs than AUD
Summary
The study began by examining issues between biore finery capacity, reliable feedstock logistics, sustainability, and life cycle assessment. This initial study focused on the conversion of herbaceous feedstock to etha nol via a biochemical conversion process. At the same time, selected sustainability metrics are examined to determine how different sizing assump tions affect process sustainability. In 1991, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a case study that compared a 2000 dry metric tons per day (DMT/day) facility against a large 9000 DMT/day facility based on assumed feed stock production using conventional-bale systems.[2] They determined that the 2000 DMT/day was approximately optimal
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