Identifying the Canadian Forest Biorefinery

This paper presents an overview of certain emerging biorefinery process options, and highlights the complex and ambiguous decision-making challenges that mills will face who would like to consider implementing the biorefinery. While most biorefinery developments have focused on process technologies, it is critical a) to first define the specific products that the mill should seek to produce considering such factors as market demand, product margins, production flexibility, and the supply chain, and b) to model and examine the process and accounting models for the existing mill in order to ensure that this asset value is maintained. The set of systems analysis techniques and process integration tools for examining these questions are reviewed, and some key issues facing the Canadian industry relative to the biorefinery are presented.