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Zargar Ershadi, Shiva

University of British Columbia

The global transition towards a bioeconomy is critical for mitigating the challenges posed by escalating energy demands, depletion of fossil fuel reserves, and environmental degradation linked to conventional energy sources. Forest biorefineries are pivotal in this transition, converting lignocellulosic biomass into high-value biofuels and biochemicals. This dissertation advances the sustainability of integrated forest biorefineries through the development and application of an integrated analytical platform, BIO-OPT. BIO-OPT combines life cycle assessment (LCA), techno-economic analysis (TEA), and multi-objective optimization (MOO) to comprehensively evaluate and optimize biorefinery operations. By systematically analyzing trade-offs between global warming potential (GWP) and net present value (NPV) as a measure of life cycle environmental impacts and economic returns, respectively, BIO-OPT offers a framework to determine optimal resource allocation for multiple product streams, accounting for how varying production volumes influence both environmental impacts and economic returns of a given biorefinery. The development of BIO-OPT involved addressing key challenges identified in literature, including handling missing data in LCA and improving data accessibility for high-value biochemicals. A key application of BIO-OPT is demonstrated through a case study involving the production of bioethanol, furfural, and vanillin from woodchips. The results underscore a complex trade-off between GWP and NPV across varying woodchip allocation for bioethanol, furfural, and vanillin production. Pareto-optimal solutions reveal that as vanillin production increases, the system achieves higher NPVs, although at the expense of increased total GWP results of the entire biorefinery. Bioethanol production, fixed at a 100% allocation, demonstrates a steady economic contribution, while the optimization model suggests keeping furfural production to a minimum due to its negative impact on NPV. Findings highlight the need for a delicate balance between maximizing economic output and minimizing environmental impacts, with room for further refinement in optimizing the integration of these processes. The dissertation concludes with a critical evaluation of research’s strengths, limitations, and its broader applications; also proposing avenues for future work. The strengths of the research lie in its holistic approach, combining LCA, TEA, and MOO as this methodological integration enhances the precision and reliability of sustainability assessments, offering a balanced perspective on the trade-offs between environmental and economic outcomes.

Text; Dataset

2025-03-31

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90555

Forestry

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/