Math Model Developed for Biofuels Development

(Novozymes)

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) created a techno-economic model that can help accelerate development of biofuels to compete with gasoline. This online, wiki-based model is designed to help researchers pursue promising strategies for cost-efficient biorefinery operations

The JBEI team at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California designed the model to address the high production costs of biofuels. To meet that need, the model simulates factors as production costs and energy balances under different processing scenarios.

The initial JBEI techno-economic model simulates a lignocellulosic ethanol biorefinery that uses corn stover feedstock. Model input factors include the cost of transporting the stover to a refinery, the use of acid pre-treatments to break down lignin and enzymes to break down cellulose into simples sugars, and the fermentation of these simple sugars into ethanol using yeast. From such inputs, users can calculate the resulting energy and greenhouse gas output.

The wiki-based model encourages collaboration to improve its effectiveness. Each unit of operation in the biofuels process flow sheet has a dedicated discussion thread, making it possible for experts in different fields to publicly address issues associated with different sections of the biorefinery. The developers say the model’s parameters and assumptions will be updated in response to feedback from the biofuels research community.