The effect of greenhouse gas policy on the design and scheduling of biodiesel plants with multiple feedstocks
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abstract
With the increasing attention to the environmental impact of discharging greenhouses gases, there has been a growing public pressure to reduce the carbon footprint associated with the use of fossil fuels. In this context, one of the key strategies is the substitution of fossil fuels with biofuels such as biodiesel. The design of biodiesel production facilities has traditionally been carried out based on technical and economic criteria. Greenhouse gas (GHG) policies (e.g., carbon tax, subsidy) have the potential to significantly alter the design of these facilities, the selection of the feedstocks, and the scheduling of multiple feedstocks. The objective of this article is to develop a systematic approach to the design and scheduling of biodiesel production processes while accounting for the effect of GHG policies in addition to the technical, economic, and environmental aspects. An optimization formulation is developed to maximize the profit of the process subject to flowsheet synthesis and performance modeling equations. Furthermore, the carbon footprint is accounted for with the help of a life cycle analysis (LCA). The objective function includes a term which reflects the impact of the LCA of a feedstock and its processing to biodiesel. A multiperiod approach is used to discretize the decision- making horizon into time periods. During each period, decisions are made on the type and flowrate of the feedstocks, as well as the associated design and operating variables. A case study is solved with several scenarios of feedstocks and GHG policies. Springer-Verlag 2009.
