Furthermore, the biorefinery industries also require additional space for drying
and storage of these wastes. This could be overcome by establishing a common
collection point from nearby agricultural fields and pre-processing of biomass
feedstocks at the field itself. The collection of agricultural residues depends on
several factors such as its price, transporting cost, the time gap between crop harvest
and sowing of consecutive crop, the quantity used for in situ burning, other
applications, collection, and storage of individual crop residues. For handling of
bulk quantity of biomass without pre-processing, the biomass handling machinery
such as balers/binders can be used to bundle the biomass in the form of bales. The
transportation cost is directly proportional to the distance between the biomass
collection point and the biorefinery site. In other words, higher transportation costs
could be incurred for the biorefinery site located far away to the collection point and
vice versa. The biomass supply chain may be achieved in three ways viz., direct
biomass procurement from agricultural growers, mediators, and contract farming
between industry and growers. Alternatively, a mobile biomass pretreatment unit can
be used to pretreat the biomass and hydrolysate/solid residue will be sent in separate
transport vehicles to biorefineries. The sustainability of agricultural residues based
biorefinery factories depends on
• Types of biomass and their availability nearby factory site
• Seasonal availability of agro-residues
• Good biomass supply chain and logistics
• Technical and economic feasibility of the biorefinery technologies
Through proper supply chain management, the overall transport cost can be
minimized. This kind of practice would result in lesser storage area and human
resources requirement, leading to sustainable operation of biorefineries. The
influencing factors for biomass supply chain and logistics are biomass types and
seasonal availability, collection and storage area, biorefinery sites, pretreatment
types, and transportation mode (Sharma et al. 2013). The biomass supply chain
logistics have a significant share of the total cost of biofuel production, which
consumes about 20–35% of total processing cost (Rentizelas et al. 2009). If the
cost of raw materials, as well as transport costs are higher, it would reflect on the
economic returns of the biorefinery project. Therefore, biomass supply chain design
plays a vital role in a sustainable biorefinery industry. The major bottlenecks for
commercialization of biochemical conversion technology for bioethanol production
from agro-residue are energy-intensive processes, higher pretreatment and enzyme
costs, difficult to scale up, the low fermentability of mixed sugar stream, the
generation of inhibitory soluble compounds, and higher capital investment.
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D. Ramesh et al.
and storage of these wastes. This could be overcome by establishing a common
collection point from nearby agricultural fields and pre-processing of biomass
feedstocks at the field itself. The collection of agricultural residues depends on
several factors such as its price, transporting cost, the time gap between crop harvest
and sowing of consecutive crop, the quantity used for in situ burning, other
applications, collection, and storage of individual crop residues. For handling of
bulk quantity of biomass without pre-processing, the biomass handling machinery
such as balers/binders can be used to bundle the biomass in the form of bales. The
transportation cost is directly proportional to the distance between the biomass
collection point and the biorefinery site. In other words, higher transportation costs
could be incurred for the biorefinery site located far away to the collection point and
vice versa. The biomass supply chain may be achieved in three ways viz., direct
biomass procurement from agricultural growers, mediators, and contract farming
between industry and growers. Alternatively, a mobile biomass pretreatment unit can
be used to pretreat the biomass and hydrolysate/solid residue will be sent in separate
transport vehicles to biorefineries. The sustainability of agricultural residues based
biorefinery factories depends on
• Types of biomass and their availability nearby factory site
• Seasonal availability of agro-residues
• Good biomass supply chain and logistics
• Technical and economic feasibility of the biorefinery technologies
Through proper supply chain management, the overall transport cost can be
minimized. This kind of practice would result in lesser storage area and human
resources requirement, leading to sustainable operation of biorefineries. The
influencing factors for biomass supply chain and logistics are biomass types and
seasonal availability, collection and storage area, biorefinery sites, pretreatment
types, and transportation mode (Sharma et al. 2013). The biomass supply chain
logistics have a significant share of the total cost of biofuel production, which
consumes about 20–35% of total processing cost (Rentizelas et al. 2009). If the
cost of raw materials, as well as transport costs are higher, it would reflect on the
economic returns of the biorefinery project. Therefore, biomass supply chain design
plays a vital role in a sustainable biorefinery industry. The major bottlenecks for
commercialization of biochemical conversion technology for bioethanol production
from agro-residue are energy-intensive processes, higher pretreatment and enzyme
costs, difficult to scale up, the low fermentability of mixed sugar stream, the
generation of inhibitory soluble compounds, and higher capital investment.
120
D. Ramesh et al.