Systematic assessment of triticale‐based biorefinery strategies: market competitive analysis for business model development

Abstract

Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) is a high‐productivity cereal crop that holds great promise as an industrial feedstock for agricultural biorefineries, as it can grow on marginal lands. Several product derivatives can be envisioned; however, they need to be systematically explored and assessed using a sustainability perspective, in order to define a business model that would lead to a long‐term competitive position. This study presents a competitive analysis of triticale‐based product‐process alternatives defined on ethanol, polylactic acid (PLA), and thermoplastic starch polymer blends (TPS/PLA) product platforms. As part of the analysis framework, we sought to identify a set of important market‐oriented criteria for multi‐criteria decision‐making (MCDM), prior to an overall sustainability assessment in which techno‐economic and environmental criteria are considered as well. From an initial set of necessary competitiveness criteria, three ‘most‐important’ competitiveness criteria for the sustainability assessment of the PLA platform were identified including competitive access to biomass, competitiveness on production costs, and the potential to manage market price volatility. Certain key factors have been highlighted for each platform as an outcome of the competitiveness assessment, such as the impact of value‐added co‐products on the competitive position of commodity‐based product portfolios, and the advantage of combining grain and straw process lines for specialty‐based product portfolios leading to improved competitive potential. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Multicriteria assessment of technology pathways to produce renewable and sustainable biofuels: case study in eastern Canada

“…Interpretation of criteria should be unique for each criterion 14 Criterion must address short‐ and long‐ term objectives 14 Each criterion should include a practical and ideal definition, as well as a related formulated metric 14 …”

“…14 • Each criterion should include a practical and ideal definition, as well as a related formulated metric. 14 Decision-making tools in support of biorefinery decision-making A decision support system (DSS) can help provide valuable information. Usually, a DSS is made up of: 15 • multiple databases;…”

“…Criteria should be appropriate for the context and be useful in distinguishing between the different strategies under consideration 12 Interpretation of criteria should be unique for each criterion 14 Criterion must address short‐ and long‐ term objectives 14 …”

A market‐driven algorithm for the assessment of promising bio‐based chemicals

“…Definition of a biorefinery product portfolio using market‐driven approaches in Chemical Engineering is uncommon but not unheard of in the Chemical Engineering community. Relevant examples include different contributions from the Stuart group who has studied Canada‐based biorefineries: summarizes the work related to the Forest biorefinery; while present different analysis related to the triticale‐biorefinery. These contributions have focused on the metrics that should be calculated to assess the different options and how to weigh them in order to represent the point of view of a decision maker.…”

Systematic assessment of triticale‐based biorefinery strategies: investment decisions for sustainable biorefinery business models

“…The competitive position of the product portfolio, the robustness of the business strategy in the face of volatility in demand and prices, and the potential of the technology strategy to support the development of the business strategy are some of the key success factors that should be defined and considered when evaluating an investment opportunity. 10 As part of a sustainability approach, the environmental impacts associated with various biorefinery options are generally characterized using life-cycle assessment (LCA), which leads to the quantification of different environmental aspects. 11 The complete spectrum of environmental impact categories should be refined to a set of necessary and sufficient indicators to enable decision making in a specific biorefinery context.…”