Multi-Year Analysis Plan Page 48
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804
Types of Analysis used in the Biomass Program
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Analysis is defined as “the examination of a complex, its elements and their relations”
. One can analyze
substances, organisms, processes, or actions. The boundaries chosen determine the size of the system to
be examined. You can analyze a microscopic system, looking at how substances adhere to a catalyst
surface, or a macroscopic system, looking at how a new chemical might affect a global market. Either
way, the purpose is to understand the system well enough to make decisions about it: Could it be
improved and at what cost? What improvements are possible and at what benefit? The goal of analysis,
then, is to provide enough information about a system to know when it is optimal, be it a chemical,
enzyme, gasification process, or the entry of a new fuel into the transportation market.
Engineering is defined as “the application of scientific and mathematical principles to practical ends such
as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes, and
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systems”
. It is necessary to understand what designs are possible, how much the process options might
cost, and what improvements are necessary to reach economic targets. Engineering contains the tools to
create, and then improve a process.
Analysis relies upon engineering feasibility studies, financial estimates, environmental assessments, and
market impact evaluations to understand 1) processes and how new technology affects them, 2) markets
and how products from the processes would change them, and 3) the environment and how the process
and products will affect them.
There are many different types of analysis and all of the analyses described here build on each other and
are supported by an infrastructure of tools and methods, some specific to a certain analysis, some that tie
the results of several analyses together.
The types of analysis discussed in this plan are:
•
Resource assessment (availability)
•
Technical and economic feasibility
•
Environmental impacts
•
Markets (biomass supply, biorefinery and bioindustry infrastructure logistics)
•
Societal benefits
Some analysis tools are models that describe the system under study; examples include mass and energy
balance models for the process and market penetration models for a product. Other types of analysis (e.g.
chemical or structural) that figure prominently in the execution of the OBP’s portfolio are covered in the
multi-year technical plan.
The OBP uses engineering and analysis to support decision-making, show progress to goals and direct
research activities. Platform level analysis activities provide direction, focus, and support to the
development and introduction of feedstock production, and processing and use technologies. The majority
of process engineering and analysis is performed as part of the research platforms. Program level
(integrated platform) analysis provides direction and focus to the overall research program by evaluating
the technical, economic, environmental, and market aspects of biomass use via integrated pathways.
Program analysis has three objectives: 1) to combine the results of platform analysis into biorefinery
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Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc. (1983).
12
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company
(2000).
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