Evaluating the cost factors of bio-refinery by Importance-Performance Analysis

Biomass is one of the promising and sustainable energy resources. Due to enormous demand for energy like petroleum-based fuels and electricity, biomass plays an important role to balance energy demand and supply. However, an obstacle in renewable energy production way is expensive costs as cultivation, harvesting, production process, operational and maintenance costs, etc. The aim of this paper is evaluating cost factors of a bio-refinery in Mashhad city, from cultivation to delivery stages. For this purpose, 5 energy economics experts’ opinions were used to evaluate factors via importance-performance analysis. The results show that production and farming costs should reduce to improve performance. Also, transportation and delivery costs should be limited to decrease loss.

Keywords:

cost factors , importance-performance analysis , biomass , renewable energy , bio-refinery