Petroleum accounts for 94% of all liquid fuels and 36% of the total of all energy consumed in the United States. Petroleum dependence is problematic because global petroleum reserves are estimated to last only for 40 to 60 years at current consumption rates; global supplies are often located in politically unstable or unfriendly regions; and fossil fuels have negative environmental footprints. Domestic policies have aimed at promoting alternative, renewable liquid fuels, specifically bio]fuels derived from organic matter. Cellulosic bio]ethanol is one promising alternative fuel that has featured prominently in federal bio]fuel mandates under the Energy Independence and Security Act, 2007. However, the cellulosic bio]ethanol industry faces several technical, physical and industrial organization challenges. This dissertation examines the concept of a network of regional biomass pre]treatment centers (RBPC) that form an extended biomass supply chain feeding into a simplified biorefinery as a way to overcome these challenges. The analyses conducted address the structural and transactional issues facing bio-ethanol value chain establishment; the technical and financial feasibility of a stand alonepre]treatment center (RBPC); the impact of distributed pre]treatment on biomass transport costs; a comparative systems cost evaluation of the performance of the RBPC chain versus a fully integrated biorefinery (gIBRh), followed by application of the analytical framework to three case study regions.
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