Biomass feedstock preprocessing and long‐distance transportation logistics

Abstract

Biomass-based biofuels have gained attention because they are renewable energy sources that could facilitate energy independence and improve rural economic development. As biomass supply and biofuel demand areas are generally not geographically contiguous, the design of an efficient and effective biomass supply chain from biomass provision to biofuel distribution is critical to facilitate large-scale biofuel development. This study compared the costs of supplying biomass using three alternative biomass preprocessing and densification technologies (pelletizing, briquetting, and grinding) and two alternative transportation modes (trucking and rail) for the design of a four-stage biomass-biofuel supply chain in which biomass produced in Illinois is used to meet biofuel demands in either California or Illinois. The BioScope optimization model was applied to evaluate a fourstage biomass-biofuel supply chain that includes biomass supply, centralized storage and preprocessing (CSP), biorefinery, and ethanol distribution. We examined the cost of 15 scenarios that included a combination of three biomass preprocessing technologies and five supply chain configurations. The findings suggested that the transportation costs for biomass would generally follow the pattern of coal transportation. Converting biomass to ethanol locally and shipping ethanol over long distances is most economical, similar to the existing grain-based biofuel system. For the Illinois-California supply chain, moving ethanol is $0.24 gal À1 less costly than moving biomass even in densified form over long distances. The use of biomass pellets leads to lower overall costs of biofuel production for long-distance transportation but to higher costs if used for short-distance movement due to its high capital and processing costs. Supported by the supply chain optimization modeling, the cellulosic-ethanol production and distribution costs of using Illinois feedstock to meet California demand are $0.08 gal À1higher than that for meeting local Illinois demand.

Carbon savings with transatlantic trade in pellets: accounting for market-driven effects

“…The amount of pellets produced in different marketing regions was determined endogenously. A uniform cost of manufacturing wood pellets of $70.0 Mg −1 (Dwivedi et al 2014) and of transporting it on rail roads from plant to the seaport for export of $6.98 Mg −1 (fixed cost) and $0.01-0.039 Mg −1 km −1 (variable cost) was assumed to obtain the delivered cost of pellets (Lin et al 2015). We incorporated transportation distance for pellets from the center point of each region to the Savannah Seaport, Georgia (US), using railroads.…”

A spatiotemporal assessment of field residues of rice, maize, and wheat at provincial and county levels in China

“…The distribution pattern of residue resource can strongly influence the development of bioenergy market and industry. It is critical for the government and business to consider where and how to develop biomass supply chain systems, including the number and capacity of storage and processing facilities and associated logistics infrastructure such as road or rail transportations (Jonker et al, 2016;Lin et al, 2016;You, Tao, Graziano, & Snyder, 2012;Zhang, Osmani, Awudu, & Gonela, 2013). A more spatially concentrated pattern of residue resource would reduce the logistics complexity and costs for biomass-based industry and support the development of large-scale facilities to achieve economies of scale (Hu et al, 2017;Lin, Rodríguez, Shastri, Hansen, & Ting, 2013;Zhang et al, 2013).…”

Toward systems‐level analysis of agricultural production from crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM): scaling from cell to commercial production

“…Costs and energy requirements of production have also been evaluated in detail using economic, transportation and life-cycle assessments (Khanna et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2012;Lin et al, 2015). These costs allow a more complete analysis of the commercial viability, economic impact and long-term sustainability of agricultural production systems and are valuable tools to integrate academic understanding with industrial development.…”

“…These costs allow a more complete analysis of the commercial viability, economic impact and long-term sustainability of agricultural production systems and are valuable tools to integrate academic understanding with industrial development. The most meaningful economic assessments are integrated with biophysical models of crop production and nutrient cycling (Jain et al, 2010;Lin et al, 2015).…”