Biofuels are still too costly to compete in the energy market and it has been suggested that low-value feedstocks could provide an opportunity for the production of low-cost biofuels; however, the lower quality of these feedstocks requires the introduction of a conditioning step in the biorefinery process. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether feedstock savings cover the cost of conditioning in the case of animal bedding. The BioSTEAM software was used to simulate a wheat straw biorefinery and an animal bedding biorefinery, whose economic performance was compared. The wheat straw biorefinery could deliver ethanol at a minimum selling price of USD 0.61 per liter, which is similar to prices in the literature. The cost of producing ethanol in the animal bedding biorefinery without water recycling was almost 40% higher, increasing the minimum selling price to USD 1.1 per liter of ethanol. After introducing water recycling in the conditioning step, the animal bedding biorefinery could deliver ethanol at a minimum selling price of USD 0.38 per liter, which is 40% lower than in the case of the wheat straw biorefinery. This demonstrates that low-value feedstocks can be used to reduce the biofuel price, as feedstock savings easily cover the additional conditioning cost.

中文翻译：

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使用BioSTEAM软件基于低价值原料的生物精炼厂的技术经济评价：动物垫料的案例研究

生物燃料的价格仍然太高而无法在能源市场上竞争，有人建议，低价原料可以为生产低成本生物燃料提供机会。然而，这些原料的较低质量要求在生物精炼过程中引入调节步骤。这项研究的目的是评估在动物垫料的情况下节省的原料是否包括调节成本。BioSTEAM软件用于模拟麦秸生物精炼厂和动物垫层生物精炼厂，并对其经济性能进行了比较。小麦秸秆生物精炼厂可以以每公升0.61美元的最低销售价格提供乙醇，与文献中的价格相似。在没有水循环的情况下，动物垫料生物炼制厂生产乙醇的成本高出近40％，将最低销售价格提高到每升乙醇1.1美元。在调节步骤中引入水循环利用之后，动物垫层生物精炼厂可以以每公升0.38美元的最低销售价格提供乙醇，比小麦秸秆生物精炼厂的价格低40％。这表明低价值的原料可以用来降低生物燃料的价格，因为原料的节省很容易覆盖额外的调节成本。