A Mathematical Decomposition for the Synthesis and the Application of Total Site Analysis on Multi-product Biorefineries

Multi-product biorefineries emerge with the need for novel conceptual process synthesis tools that will simultaneously assess a multitude of new processes and products for being integrated into the complete biorefinery scheme. Energy integration plays a key role in producing sustainable and profitable processes. Direct or indirect process to process integration may allow the inclusion of - otherwise rejected - energy intensive processes into a final biorefinery system. This paper presents an automated two staged Total Site approach combined with economic indicators, for selecting optimal combinations of candidate processes and producing optimal allocation of utilities. The proposed method can further evaluate process modifications and aid design decisions. The applicability of the models is illustrated through a case study involving eight real pilot biorefining processes developed in the course of the European biorefinery research project Biocore (2010).