BeWhere Finland at the International Nordic Bioenergy Conference 2011

A Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model is used to evaluate the optimal biofuel plant locations and technology choice in the Eastern Finland by minimizing the cost of entire supply chain which includes the biomass supply, biomass and biofuel transportation, biomass conversion, and energy distribution. This study also gives an insight to the techno-economic performance of the two biomass conversion technologies considered: ethanol production through hydrolysis and fermentation, and methanol production through gasification. The model is spatially explicit and estimates the spatial distribution of biomass resources and energy demand in Eastern Finland. The results indicate that either two methanol plants (360MW_biomass) or four ethanol plants (two 360MW_biomass and the other two 180 MW_biomass) are needed to be built to meet the transport fuel demand of Eastern Finland (9.45PJ). In addition, potential uses of byproducts like heat, electricity and biogas from the production plants are also analyzed. The introduction of energy policy tools like carbon tax coupled with seasonal heat demand variations is found to have a profound influence on the choice of technology. Comparison of model results indicates that the cost of ethanol production is found to be cheaper than the methanol production. The model results can be of significant importance to decision makers for efficient geographical energy planning.

Last edited: 02 July 2012