Life-cycle costing: Analysis of biofuel production systems

• Main Authors: Razon, Luis F., Khang, Dinh S., Tan, Raymond Girard R., Aviso, Kathleen B., Yu, Krista Danielle S., Promentilla, Michael Angelo B.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Life cycle costing; Biomass energy; Chemical Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/2275; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/faculty_research/article/3274/type/native/viewcontent
• Institution: De La Salle University

The economic feasibility of biofuels depends not only on investment costs but also on other costs incurred throughout the product life cycle. Such factors include agricultural inputs, which determine the cost of the feedstock, other raw materials, interest rates, labor cost, plant capacity, energy, transport, and administrative overhead. These factors depend on geographic location, time period, and even political decisions. In addition, the total cost relates to these input factors in a nonlinear manner and many of these factors interact with each other such that variations in cost can result in investment risks. To help decision makers, the volatility of these factors needs to be quantified such that their impact can be rapidly assessed. A design-of-experiments method has been demonstrated as an effective means of identifying the factors which are significant to the total cost. The method provides simple equations that capture the relationships between the variables. A case study shows how this method may be applied to biodiesel. © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.