Multi-Year Analysis Plan Page 35
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80variability and market perturbations. On the other hand, the risk of a shared equity investment may deter
potential grower investments and limit the location of certain biorefineries. A comparison of these
investment strategies will evaluate the potential benefits in terms of supply and cost stability to an
integrated biorefinery infrastructure for various regional factors.
Supply System Logistics
The INEEL, in partnership with equipment manufacturers, has made considerable progress and
advancements in the feedstock infrastructure area over the past couple of years. Specifically as part of the
ongoing highly successful OBP sponsored Selective Harvest and Multi-Component projects, considerable
work and progress has occurred to determine which components of the agricultural residue biomass
should be left in the field to address soil health and sustainability concerns and which parts should be
harvested as biorefinery feedstocks. Also as part of these projects, numerical and computational models
on mechanical fractionation and air stream biomass separation have been developed and integrated into a
format that can be analyzed using virtual reality allowing virtual engineering models to be developed.
These models are available to perform virtual engineering analysis of various biomass selective harvest
techniques and methods that can be employed in a single-pass mode without negatively impacting the
grain harvest. This innovative approach will significantly reduce the time and resources required for
conventional engineering prototype approaches.
Equipment manufacturers are unwilling to make the significant resource investment required to develop
the necessary biomass harvest and collection technology and equipment until significant markets exist for
this technology and equipment. On the other hand, processors are unwilling to commit the resources
required to build biorefineries until reasonable guarantees of feedstock supply, price and quality can be
achieved. Initially processors thought that feedstocks needs could be largely meet with existing harvest
and collection technology and methods. However, more detailed analysis has shown this is not the case
and new technology and methods are needed to meet the feedstock needs of the biorefinery.
Unfortunately, this puts the biorefinery concept in a precarious chicken or egg scenario that could
significantly delay or threaten the eventual success of the biorefinery. The virtual engineering prototyping
approach is an innovative method for overcoming this dilemma.
The INEEL, in partnership with growers and academia, has also evaluated bulk processing, handling and
transport technologies and methods as a more desirable, lower cost, alternative to conventional baling for
biorefinery feedstocks. Several concepts that have been developed and conceptually evaluated show
considerable promise for meeting the feedstock availability and price targets. Additionally, the INEEL
has evaluated several long-term storage technologies for both wet and dry storage options that are low
cost with minimal degradation and losses.
ORNL research focuses on developing and applying a logistics model for supplying feedstock from an
agricultural setting to specific biorefineries. The model takes into account constraints on the supply chain
from local climatic conditions, farm size and yields, transportation and storage networks, supply and
demand schedules, and feedstock quality specifications. The model output consists of costs and energy
and utilization rate of current or future available agricultural residue collection systems. The model will
be linked to other ORNL tools such as the ORIBAS transportation model and eventually to NREL’s
biorefinery models to create an integrated model that can be used to assess the value and benefits of the
proposed equipment and feedstock storage concepts being developed by DOE, USDA, and NBC
researchers. ORNL and INEEL scientists will work closely together to generate the experimental and
operational data needed to validate and use the model. The supply chain model will be designed to
directly interface with process models being developed by NREL and others.
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