Techno-economic and environmental analysis of global biomass supply chains for Germany - Exemplified by a case study for ethanol from Brazil

Due to the increasing importance of biomass imports for Germany, a comprehensive biomass supply chain model was designed to assess the associated costs and GHG emissions of global biomass supply paths. This model is composed of interchangeable and combinable sub-models to ensure the comparability of different supply path settings. After the model is described in detail, it is followed by an exemplified application to the potential supply path of Brazilian ethanol from sugarcane for the German commodity market, resulting in overall supply chain costs of 606.04€/t ethanol (95% v/v) and GHG emissions of 3.223t/CO2-eq. A possible improvement of the overall supply path efficiency by the use of the co-product bagasse for second generation biofuel is outlined and discussed. Finally, an overview is given about further applications of the model and the planned software implementation.

Subjects

Bioethanol

Economical aspects

Greenhouse gases (GHG)

Sugarcane

Supply chain

DDC Class

600: Technology

Options

Techno-economic and environmental analysis of global biomass supply chains for Germany - Exemplified by a case study for ethanol from Brazil