Economic Evaluation of Large-Scale Biorefinery Deployment: A Framework Integrating Dynamic Biomass Market and Techno-Economic Models

Abstract

Biofuels and biochemicals play significant roles in the transition towards a fossil-free society. However, large-scale biorefineries are not yet cost-competitive with their fossil-fuel counterparts, and it is important to identify biorefinery concepts with high economic performance. For evaluating early-stage biorefinery concepts, one needs to consider not only the technical performance and process costs but also the economic performance of the full supply chain and the impacts on feedstock and product markets. This article presents and demonstrates a conceptual interdisciplinary framework that can constitute the basis for evaluations of the full supply-chain performance of biorefinery concepts. This framework considers the competition for biomass across sectors, assumes exogenous end-use product demand, and incorporates various geographical and technical constraints. The framework is demonstrated empirically through a case study of a sawmill-integrated biorefinery producing liquefied biomethane from forestry and forest industry residues. The case study results illustrate that acknowledging biomass market effects in the supply chain evaluation implies changes in both biomass prices and the allocation of biomass across sectors. The proposed framework should facilitate the identification of biorefinery concepts with a high economic performance which are robust to feedstock price changes caused by the increase in biomass demand.

Anaerobic Digestion for Producing Renewable Energy—The Evolution of This Technology in a New Uncertain Scenario

“…Key issues considered in this scheme are biomass selection, transport costs, high and low-value products, conversion yields, energy efficiency and energy recovery. Other relevant factors when evaluating the feasibility of biorefineries are those considered by Zetterholm et al [ 194 ]. The framework considered by these authors included the competition for biomass across sectors, also assuming exogenous end-use product demand, incorporating various geographical and technical constraints.…”

“…Technologies selected when dealing with the processing of biomass should be capable of adjusting to changes in feedstock prices. A biorefinery is a high capital investment facility and, as stated by Zetterholm et al [ 194 ], these types of installations have many relevant decision variables; ignoring some of their key aspects may result in misleading conclusions and conflicting policy recommendations.…”

Food Waste Biorefinery: Pathway towards Circular Bioeconomy

“…However, if the selling price of ethylene is increased slightly, the biorefinery could be economical [ 147 ]. Currently, the operation of industrial scale biorefineries is not economically viable compared to fossil fuel equivalents [ 148 ]. However, the possibility of producing novel materials will lead to price competitiveness and cost-effectiveness of the biorefineries.…”

Microalgae as Contributors to Produce Biopolymers

“…Recently, the circular economy has relied on the biorefinery concept involving biomass and renewable resources, aiming to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and waste disposals [ 3 ]. Biorefinery plays a key role in moving towards a net-zero society [ 4 ]. Annually, more than 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide, about one-third of which ends up in landfills, freshwater lakes, rivers, and oceans as plastic waste [ 5 ].…”

“…The ability of microalgae to grow in nonarable land at an acceptable growth rate and high photosynthetic conversion efficiency makes them a suitable feedstock for bioplastic production [ 8 , 11 ]. Microalgae have been recognized as a sustainable resource of biomass to be applied as biofertilizers and in human and animal nutrition, wastewater treatment, nitrogen fixing, CO 2 mitigation, and bioenergy production [ 4 ]; they also contain several bioactive compounds with applications as stable-isotope biochemicals, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics, just to mention a few. To be more precise, a literature search devoted to the principal markets using “microalgae” or microalgae-based compounds was also contemplated.…”