Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
combination will result in the best transportation
system for ethanol produced in the Northwest.
In order to validate the model and analysis per-
formed in this paper, a case study was performed
on a Northwest ethanol production company.
Pacific Ethanol has several locations throughout
the United States, and is currently developing a
cellulosic ethanol plant in Boardman, Oregon.
Several aspects of their operation confirm the
analysis performed in this paper. The production
method chosen by Pacific Ethanol is an enzyme
hydrolysis process developed by Biogasol. The
distribution system utilized by Pacific Ethanol's
distribution division, Kinergy Marketing, is by
barge. Both of these supply chain components
directly align with our model. The only area that
deviated from the model was the raw material
selection. Pacific Ethanol chose to use wheat straw
as well as corn stover as feedstock. This deviation
is due to Pacific Ethanol's adjacent corn ethanol
production facility. They are already producing
corn ethanol, and the corn stover is a by-product of
this process. This changes the collection and price
values for corn stover and explains the biomass
selection by Pacific Ethanol. With this variation
accounted for, it can be seen that this model is an
accurate representation of the criteria and critical
issues that need to be addressed by an Oregon-
based cellulosic ethanol production company.
This supply chain selection model will provide
valuable information and methodology to poten-
tial Northwest cellulosic ethanol companies. The
component rankings can be re-evaluated based on
changing conditions or to address unique situa-
tions. The basic structure will still be applicable
in each case, but the flexibility of the criteria
selection, weightings, and rankings will allow this
methodology to provide valuable information to
many different companies.
We would like to thank Mike Tyler, Casey Ziels-
dorff, Vitawin Varawut and Ignacio Castillejos for
their contributions during this project.
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