An Optimization-Based Framework for Design of Renewable Energy Processes Under Uncertainty: Application to Biorefineries

摘要

Owing to finite nature of fossil fuels, rapid increase in their prices and concerns about their environmental impact, efforts around the world to develop renewable transportation fuels and biobased chemicals have intensified. As the world has recognized the importance of diversifying its energy resource portfolio away from fossil resources and more towards renewable resources such as biomass, there arises a need for developing strategies which can design renewable sustainable value chains that can be scaled up efficiently and provide tangible net environmental benefits from energy utilization. Biobased fuels and chemicals can be derived from any form of biomass such as plants or organic wastes. After a boom in the U.S. corn-based ethanol (first-generation biofuel) in the early part of the 21st century, the interest has gradually shifted towards more viable renewable resources such as lignocellulosic feedstocks. The fuels and chemicals produced from lignocellulosic feedstocks are extremely attractive owing to the fact that the raw materials can be composed completely of “left-over” wastes of food crops and forest harvests that do not interfere with the human food chain. It also can provide new income and employment opportunities in rural areas. Further, due to the large variety of lignocellulosic materials and their abundance, these types of produced fuels and chemicals can overcome the challenge of limited feedstock availability that first generation biorefineries have to contend with.