Case Study of Transportation Benefits Using GIS in Distributed Preprocessing of Corn Stover into Crude Biobutanol

HighlightsTotal transportation costs were reduced by 32% to 63% with distributed biobutanol depots.An 8 km distance to the depot manifested the most desirable transportation costs.Across regions, biomass transport costs from field to depot were similar at equivalent distances.Abstract. The transportation efficiencies of centralized biomass processing facilities were compared to a proposed distributed preprocessing network with centralized refining facilities. Centralized biomass processing was defined as transport of baled corn stover directly from the field to the refinery. Distributed preprocessing with centralized refining was defined as transport of baled corn stover from the field to a biobutanol preprocessing depot and transport of completely dewatered crude biobutanol solution from the depot to a centralized refinery. For both systems, the locations of the corn fields, as identified through the cropland data layer, and of the refinery were fixed. For the distributed system, the biobutanol depot locations were variable and depended on different maximum transport distances (8 to 80 km) from the field to the depot. In this case study, site-specific transportation costs and biobutanol production capacities were developed for different agricultural regions in Kentucky. The distributed system produced a 32% to 63% reduction in total transportation cost with decreased (50% to 90%) fuel use as compared to the centralized system. The GIS transportation model demonstrated that on-farm biofuel production could be an effective means of producing biofuel and reducing transportation costs. Keywords: Biomass transport, Depot, Distributed biomass collection, GIS location-allocation, Minimize facilities, Satellite facilities.