Techno-economic assessment and logistics management of biomass in the conversion progress to bioenergy

Abstract

Biomass has been known as a potential energy source for biofuel production to replace fossil fuels aiming to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. However, one of the hurdles to prevent biomass from being widely utilized as energy and producing fuel is its high cost because there has not still an efficient biofuel production technique, proper techno-economic assessment and logistics management strategy. In this paper, the application of the thermochemical process in the conversion of biomass to bioenergy was comprehensively presented. Besides, the techno-economic feasibility of converting agricultural biomass into biofuels was also carefully assessed according to the technical characteristics and applicability of the thermo-chemical techniques. Furthermore, this paper also mentioned significant logistics management features like supply-driven and demand-driven collection, storage at intermediate facilities, biomass collection in various forms, inter-modal delivery for transporting in long-distance, deterioration of biomass quality, biomass pre-processing planning, and operational-level transportation planning. Generally, biomass-derived biofuels could become the most efficient and appealing bioenergy. Nevertheless, production on a large scale is still a challenge, and it is critical to develop innovative technology to improve the efficiency of biofuel production and seek efficient biomass logistics management to meet the energy demand at present and in the future.