A key factor in the production of economically viable and environmentally sustainable biofuels is biorefinery site selection. Facility location analysis has traditionally been driven by access to feedstock, proximity to customers, and local incentives. While economic constraints will always be major factors in site selection, incorporating social metrics may further reduce the cost of constructing a biorefinery. A community's disposition toward a biorefinery project may significantly impact implementation success: grassroots support can lower implementation costs while opposition may increase the costs of permitting blockages and other scale-up delays. The proposed biorefinery siting tool improves upon previous research by incorporating site-specific biogeophysical measures and more complete and comprehensive social measures of community innovation and capacity for collective action. A refined biogeophysical analysis assesses pulp mills for their potential as repurposed biorefineries. The social asset components of site selection are greatly improved by enhancing and disaggregating key metrics through the use of multiple indicators of community collective action capacity and propensity for change. The refined measures are integrated into a biorefinery site-selection tool. Pulp mills that rank highly in both the biogeophysical and social asset measures may be considered more suitable candidates for repurpose into a biorefinery. This enriched methodology has been applied to biorefinery siting decisions in the U.S. Pacific Northwest region; however, it is suitable for applications to infrastructure development projects in any region of the U.S.

Constructing a commercial biorefinery involves significant financial and technical risks that may affect investor willingness to commit funds. Repurposing existing industrial facilities has been proposed as a means to lessen the investment risk in constructing a new biorefinery through reduced financial requirements and startup costs. This research provides a decision‐making tool for estimating the repurpose potential of existing industrial facilities considered for conversion to a biorefinery. It applies well‐established techniques for capital cost estimation of Greenfield biorefinery and pulp mill infrastructure and assets to determine their repurpose potential as a biorefinery. It demonstrates how capital cost reduction is highly dependent on the process technology present in the subject facility. A factored approach is employed to assign valuation to the major capital cost components of a Greenfield biorefinery. Existing facilities are then assessed for their compatibility through an infrastructure and asset analysis to determine an estimated capital percent savings that may be realized through repurposing into a biorefinery. Private and public databases and general facility process designs are used to determine the presence of equipment in each facility assessed. A yes/no analysis is performed to assign full cost to facility infrastructure and assets not present in the biorefinery and no cost to those that are present. This methodology provides an economic valuation tool for facility assessments as a metric for facility comparisons, and may be used to assist in decision‐making regarding the suitability of a facility for repurposing. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Forest residue is a major potential feedstock for second-generation biofuel; however, little knowledge exists about the environmental impacts of the development and production of biofuel from such a feedstock. Using a high-resolution regional air quality model, we estimate the air quality impacts of a forest residue based aviation biofuel supply chain scenario in the Pacific Northwestern United States. Using two potential supply chain regions, we find that biomass and biofuel hauling activities will add <1% of vehicle miles traveled to existing traffic, but the biorefineries will add significant local sources of NO and CO. In the biofuel production scenario, the regional average increase in the pollutant concentration is small, but 8-hr maximum summer time O can increase by 1-2 ppb and 24-hr average maximum PM by 2 μg/m. The alternate scenario of slash pile burning increased the multiday average PM by 2-5 μg/m during a winter simulation. Using BenMAP, a health impact assessment tool, we show that avoiding slash pile burning results in a decrease in premature mortality as well as several other nonfatal and minor health effects. In general, we show that most air quality and health benefits result primarily from avoided slash pile burning emissions.

No abstract