Simulation, techno-economics, environmental and social analysis of biorefineries Dr. Marcos Watanabe

Simulation, techno-economics, environmental and social analysis of biorefineries BBEST/2017 Tutorial INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION OF BIOFUELS: LEARNING THROUGH EXPERIENCE FUNDAMENTALS AND SCOPE The effective deployment of new biomass to biofuels conversion technologies requires advancements that include crop yield combined with innovative process engineering in order to achieve improved techno-economic performance. It is usual that a new technology gain maturity by proving various aspects of its performance through successive steps at different scales. Smaller-scale, less-costly, shorter-duration activities are completed first, based on the hypothesis that successful completion at a given scale improves the chances of success of larger-scale facilities that follow, reducing financial and technological risks and facilitating further investments. This process has been observed in the deployment of most of our current wide application technologies such the world wide processes of finding, extracting, refining and transporting petroleum and the corresponding products, or simply the “petroleum industry”, and, more recently, the global system of interconnected computer networks, i.e. “the Internet”. In the case of the biofuels industry, despite the significant progresses, technological hurdles remain around lignocellulosic biomass deconstruction, product separation energy, biological inhibition, chemical selectivity and monomer purity, in addition to improving integration of the whole conversion process. And, as it happened with the internet and petroleum industry, the biofuels industry will benefit from the experience gained by producers and consumers in several aspects, particularly in terms of its techno-economic performance. More specifically, learning through experience, also called learn by doing, experimental learning or industrial learning, naturally drives improvements through reinforcing feedbacks to technology reevaluation at all levels. Additionally, learning through experience frequently generates improvements to cost and performance metrics as well as in safety and/or environmental compliance as the performance of the whole biofuels production process is continually and repeatedly tested. Currently, as the first full scale commercial biofuels production plants were commissioned around the world and are in operation for some years, there is a great opportunity to jointly discuss and scrutinize their performance in order to accelerate the maturity gaining process for the benefit of all. And Brazil can play an important role in this process because of its fully deployed and mature 1st generation sugarcane to ethanol industry, as well as because of the experience gained from two pioneering 2nd generation ethanol industrial plants (Raízen and Granbio). Within this context, this tutorial intends to capacitate the attendee to better participate in these discussions by providing the necessary background knowledge in terms of process modeling and techno-economic analysis. Speakers: Prof. Paulo Seleghim Jr. / Univ. Sao Paulo Prof. David Chiaramonti / Univ. Florence Dr. Marcos Watanabe / CTBE Technology assessment: conversion route for biomass feedstocks to biofuels and bioproducts Technology readiness levels (TRLs) Brief history and definitions Assessment tools Technology deployment: risk management and decision making Technology evolution: incremental x disruptive Innovation and technological transitioning Technology diffusion and the learning curve Social impacts – driving and regulating technological change Case study: fuels and general purpose heat engines Historical context and geopolitics of energy Theoretical framework Transitioning from the steam engine to the internal combustion and the electric motor Will biofuels displace fossil fuels ? Biorefineries: development status and perspectives Initiatives around the world Timeline and current (reported) TRL status Turning obstacles into opportunities: challenges in feedstock production and conversion processes