Cost analysis of biomass-to-energy systems: A case study in Central Florida

The cost of growing biomass crops is usually a small portion of the cost of delivered biomass feedstocks to conversion plants, and an even smaller portion of the cost of end products, e.g. ethanol and electricity. Harvesting, transportation, and conversion are major component of total costs. In this study, cost of growing, harvesting, transporting, and converting biomass to ethanol and electricity and the impact of these cost elements on total production costs of ethanol and electricity were estimated and analyzed. Biomass crops considered were Eucalyptus, pine, leucaena, elephantgrass, and sugarcane. Results indicated that for most biomass crops, cost fur conversion to ethanol were much higher than the cost of feedstocks. Conversion of elephantgrass or sugarcane to ethanol accounted fur 66 and 68 percent of total ethanol cost, respectively. Conversion cost of Eucalyptus, pine, leucaena, and elephantgrass to electricity ranged from 52 to 61 percent of the total cost per. The results suggest that to produce ethanol and electricity from biomass at a lower cost and he competitive with energy from other sources, major efforts should be directed toward developing more efficient conversion technologies.