Early Design Stage Biorefinery Process Selection, 2011 PEERS Conference

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A methodology for the evaluation of biorefinery processes at the early design stage has been developed with the goal of screening out less promising options, involving multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) panels. Panel members were asked to express the relative importance of a set of evaluation criteria for biorefinery process implementation at a pulp and paper mill. Three different panels were carried out to address the same objectives, and the results were compared to assess the differences between panels. Two MCDM panels were conducted comprised of biorefinery specialists having similar backgrounds from government and academia (B1,B2), and one MCDM panel was conducted consisting of pulp and paper industry decision-makers (PP). In general, it was found that there was a high degree of consensus between all three panels and especially between the two biorefinery specialist panels; however there were certain differences with the industry panel. For example with regards to the return on investment criteria, the specialist panels favoured using current information from technology suppliers, whereas the forest industry decision makers were of the opinion that the information about a particular technology should be critiqued and adjusted based on a systematic assessment of likely future process performance. It was found that this panel-based screening methodology provided a clear understanding of the basis for decisions regarding biorefinery technology implementation in pulp and paper mills.