Search

Hexane extraction is the most common method used in the industry to produce soybean oil due to its high oil recovery and lower production cost. With the demands of soybean oil increasing either in food or industrial applications, expansion plans are considered by many companies to increase production capacity. Techno-economic analysis is performed to evaluate the economic feasibility of soybean oil production by hexane extraction based on historical scenarios from 1980 to 2015. Capital investment, operating costs, revenues, and profits are main parameters to consider when estimating profits, gross margin, return on investment (ROI), and payback time and are the indices used to evaluate the profitability of the process. As the plant capacity increases in scale to over 34.64 million kg of annual soybean oil production, the break-even is met and the producing stream is able to earn profits. Additionally, sensitivity analysis is also applied to examine which factor affects profit the most. In the hexane extraction process, material costs, especially for soybean prices, have the most significant effect on profit. However, soybean meal is the main driving force for soybean oil production due to its significant amount of productivity and revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In theory, biosugar for conversion to bioproducts can be produced economically from a variety of biomass types in many different technological, co‐production, and biorefinery siting contexts. In this paper, process modeling and financial analysis were conducted for all permutations of biochemical conversion pathways, global biomass types, co‐product options, and biorefinery siting contexts for biosugar production. Minimum sugar revenue (MSR) required to achieve a 15% internal rate of return values for scenarios examined ranged from $150–$748 per tonne. The scenarios with the lowest MSRs were sugarcane in South America and Asia, assuming hot water cook and co‐location or repurpose siting contexts. Another financially optimized scenario is corn grain, also assuming hot water cook, co‐producing distiller’s dry grains and solubles (DDGS), in a repurpose siting context. Against a benchmark sugar price of $408 per metric tonne, an internal rate of return on investment of >15% can typically only be achieved via previously demonstrated conversion pathways using sugar cane and corn grain. Major cost drivers were feedstock cost per metric tonne of carbohydrate, sugar yield, capital investment per annual metric tonne of sugar produced, residue value, and siting context. Near‐term promising technologies include autohydrolysis and dilute acid pathways. Generally, scenarios are financially enhanced by co‐location or repurposing, reducing capital expenditure (CAPEX) by about 33% and 50%, respectively, with negligible impact on cash cost. Conversion process complexity drives capital investment, making some scenarios infeasible despite high sugar yields. Any of the five major cost drivers can impact the order of financial attraction of scenarios, with the outcome of the analysis typically not obvious in advance. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the economic feasibility of an integrated production pathway combining fast pyrolysis and bio-oil gasification. The conversion process is simulated with Aspen Plus® for a 2000 metric ton per day facility. Techno-economic analysis of this integrated pathway has been conducted. A total capital investment of $510 million has been estimated and the minimum fuel selling price (MSP) is $5.59 per gallon of gasoline equivalent. The sensitivity analysis shows that the MSP is most sensitive to internal rate of return, fuel yield, biomass feedstock cost, and fixed capital investment. Monte-Carlo simulation shows that MSP for bio-oil gasification would be more than $6/gal with a probability of 0.24, which indicates this pathway is still at high risk with current economic and technical situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]