(635b) A Systematic Framework to Determine Economic Potential and Environmental Impact of Polygeneration Facilities

The sustainable biorefinery belongs to the more general category of chemical plants known as polygeneration facilities in the sense that a class of feedstocks may be chemically converted into a wide range of products such as polymers, fiber composites, and pharmaceuticals, as well as energy, liquid fuels and hydrogen. Although most of the fundamental processing steps involved in these polygeneration facilities are well-known, there is a need for a multidisciplinary methodology capable of evaluating the integrated processes in order to identify the optimal set of products and the best route for producing them. The optimal production path with maximum value and minimum environmental impact cannot be determined on heuristics alone. The complexity of the product allocation problem for such processing facilities demands a process systems engineering strategy utilizing process integration and optimization to ensure a targeted approach and serve as an interface between simulation work and experimental efforts. A multidisciplinary framework is needed to determine the most optimal route based on measures of economic and environmental performance. Top candidates in economic and environmental performance are subject to process integration techniques in order to minimize mass and energy usage, and these integrated biorefineries are once again analyzed for optimal performance through mathematical optimization. This framework is applied to various biorefinery case studies in order to illustrate the flexibility and robustness of the methodology in solving the biomass allocation problem for optimal economic performance and reduced environmental impact.