Resiliency considerations in designing commercial scale systems for lignocellulosic ethanol production

An optimization model for designing a resilient biomass to energy system is applied to study commercial scale ethanol production. Uncertainty in biomass availability due to drought is calculated using historical rainfall data. The probability of drought is region-specific, whereas the magnitude of loss is specific to the feedstock. The supply system includes collection sites, Regional Biomass Pre-processing Depots (RBPD), and biorefineries. The design decisions include locations and capacities of biorefineries and RPBDs, while the operational decisions include feedstock selection and material flow. The probability-weighted expected cost of production is minimized considering ideal and disruption scenarios. The problem is solved for the state of Maharashtra in India with 33 districts and five types of biomass. The results show up to 4.1% benefit due to the proposed approach over a conventional approach that ignores drought. Crop specific scenarios showed that drought affected the facility locations, capacities as well as procurement strategies. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

An optimization model for designing a resilient biomass to energy system is applied to study commercial scale ethanol production. The results show up to 4.1% benefit due to the proposed approach over a conventional approach that ignores drought. Crop specific scenarios showed that drought affected the facility locations, capacities as well as procurement strategies.