(374bd) Sustainable Biofuels Production: A Supply Chain and Economic Analysis

The Department of Forest Biomaterials at North Carolina State University is actively conducting research, in a holistic manner, for feasible and sustainable pathways to produce energy across the State of North Carolina and Southern U.S., the approach is looking around four major points: 1. Costs of producing different biomass resources, 2. Supply chain and delivery cost, 3. Conversion process in biorefinery and 4. Integrated models to evaluate the most promising options. Twelve biomass production models and ten harvesting, freight and storage models have been developed in order to understand cost associated with biomass delivery and feasibility for continuous production. Three conversion processes (Dilute acid, thermochemical conversion and green liquor pretreatment) are technically and financially evaluated for each of the biomass. Results show the most promising avenues and the scenarios for a sustainable biofuels production under the current market conditions.