About this Research Topic
Biomass transformation to value-added products is a promising option in the necessary transition to green chemistry and energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, biomass is the only renewable source of carbon to produce a variety of biochemicals.
Biorefineries are the complex facilities devoted to such transformations. Economic feasibility studies suggest that biorefineries should produce multiple products, combining low-value biofuels with higher value biochemicals. In this light, innovative process pathways are continuously developed to better exploit all biomass components.
The geographic availability and the seasonality of biomass need to be considered in order to design efficient bio-based supply chains. The choice between centralized or distributed networks derives from a trade-off between economies of scale of the chemical plants and transportation costs. The potential environmental impact affects this decision, introducing multi-objective optimization issues.
The issues which are relevant to the conceptual design and operations of bio-based industrial networks can be quantitatively approached by tackling mathematical programming problems with a big number of decision variables. As a result, advanced optimization methods are necessary to solve mathematical problems.
Research advancements are required on mathematical modeling and optimization methods to better deal with the complexity of bio-based process systems and their inherent uncertainties over time. This Research Topic aims at a significant development of the integration between different methods and software tools, also considering the multiscale nature of the problems (harvesting territory, biorefinery, process unit) and the coexistence of different types of objective functions (technical, economic, environmental).
This Research Topic will include computational modeling and simulations of biorefineries, optimization methods for bio-based process systems and biomass supply chains. We welcome submissions of Original Research, Review and Mini-Review articles on topics including, but not limited to:
• Optimization of multiple biomass supply chains
• Optimization of innovative process routes to multiple products
• Optimization problems with uncertainty and robust optimization
• Integration of biomass, food and organic waste in value chains
• Integration of biorefineries with other renewable energy sources
• Sustainable bioproduct distribution
• Biomass gasification and fermentation
• Algae biorefineries optimal design and management
• Integration of mathematical programming methods and process simulation software
• Combined economic and environmental optimization of bio-based processes
• Process optimization of bio-based polymers materials.
Biorefineries are the complex facilities devoted to such transformations. Economic feasibility studies suggest that biorefineries should produce multiple products, combining low-value biofuels with higher value biochemicals. In this light, innovative process pathways are continuously developed to better exploit all biomass components.
The geographic availability and the seasonality of biomass need to be considered in order to design efficient bio-based supply chains. The choice between centralized or distributed networks derives from a trade-off between economies of scale of the chemical plants and transportation costs. The potential environmental impact affects this decision, introducing multi-objective optimization issues.
The issues which are relevant to the conceptual design and operations of bio-based industrial networks can be quantitatively approached by tackling mathematical programming problems with a big number of decision variables. As a result, advanced optimization methods are necessary to solve mathematical problems.
Research advancements are required on mathematical modeling and optimization methods to better deal with the complexity of bio-based process systems and their inherent uncertainties over time. This Research Topic aims at a significant development of the integration between different methods and software tools, also considering the multiscale nature of the problems (harvesting territory, biorefinery, process unit) and the coexistence of different types of objective functions (technical, economic, environmental).
This Research Topic will include computational modeling and simulations of biorefineries, optimization methods for bio-based process systems and biomass supply chains. We welcome submissions of Original Research, Review and Mini-Review articles on topics including, but not limited to:
• Optimization of multiple biomass supply chains
• Optimization of innovative process routes to multiple products
• Optimization problems with uncertainty and robust optimization
• Integration of biomass, food and organic waste in value chains
• Integration of biorefineries with other renewable energy sources
• Sustainable bioproduct distribution
• Biomass gasification and fermentation
• Algae biorefineries optimal design and management
• Integration of mathematical programming methods and process simulation software
• Combined economic and environmental optimization of bio-based processes
• Process optimization of bio-based polymers materials.
Keywords: biorefinery, biomass, supply chain, process integration, uncertainty, integration
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
