IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/jlaare/99118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic Feasibility of a Woody Biomass- Based Ethanol Plant in Central Appalachia

Author

Listed:
  • Wu, Jinzhuo
  • Sperow, Mark
  • Wang, Jingxin

Abstract

A mixed-integer programming model is developed to assess the economic feasibility of siting a woody biomass-based ethanol facility in the central Appalachian hardwood region. The model maximizes the net present value (NPV) of a facility over its economic life. Model inputs include biomass availability, biomass handling system type, plant investment and capacity, transportation logistics, feedstock and product pricing, project financing, and taxes. Four alternative woody biomass handling systems, which include all processes from stand to plant, are considered. Eleven possible plant locations were identified based on site selection requirements. Results showed that the optimal plant location was in Buckhannon, West Virginia. The NPV of the plant with a demand of 2,000 dry tons of woody biomass per day varied from $68.11 million to $84.51 million among the systems over a 20-year plant life. Internal rate of return (IRR) of the facility averaged 18.67% for the base case scenario. Average ethanol production costs were approximately $2.02 to $2.08 per gallon. Production costs were most impacted by biomass availability, mill residue purchase price, plant investment and capacity, ethanol yield, and financing. Findings suggest that a woody biomass-based ethanol facility in central Appalachia could be economically feasible under certain operational scenarios.

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Jinzhuo & Sperow, Mark & Wang, Jingxin, 2010. "Economic Feasibility of a Woody Biomass- Based Ethanol Plant in Central Appalachia," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1-23, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:99118
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.99118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/99118/files/JARE_Dec2010__11F_pp522-544.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.99118?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Yuxi & Wang, Jingxin & Schuler, Jamie & Hartley, Damon & Volk, Timothy & Eisenbies, Mark, 2020. "Optimization of harvest and logistics for multiple lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks in the northeastern United States," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. Tubetov, Dulat & Maart, Syster Christin & Musshoff, Oliver, 2012. "Comparison of the investment behavior of Kazakhstani and German farmers: An experimental approach," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124650, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Tubetov, Dulat & Maart, Syster Christin & Musshoff, Oliver, 2012. "Comparison of the Investment Behavior of German and Kazakhstani Farmers: an Experimental Approach," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 122422, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    4. Tubetov, Dulat & Maart, Syster Christin & Musshoff, Oliver, 2012. "Experimental examination of land investment decisions with volatile returns A comparison between Kazakhstani and German farmers," 123rd Seminar, February 23-24, 2012, Dublin, Ireland 122454, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Haque, Mohua & Biermacher, Jon T. & Guretzky, John A. & Kering, Maru K., 2012. "Does Soil Nutrient and Remobilization Affect Harvest Strategy and Nutrient Management Decisions for Switchgrass Feedstock?," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124985, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Ramli, Nurul Nadia & Epplin, Francis, 2017. "Cost of Procuring Invasive Eastern Red Cedar Biomass for use as a Biobased Product Feedstock," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252525, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    7. Osmani, Atif & Zhang, Jun, 2014. "Economic and environmental optimization of a large scale sustainable dual feedstock lignocellulosic-based bioethanol supply chain in a stochastic environment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 572-587.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crop Production/Industries;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:99118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/waeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.