| In recently years, shortage of crude oil and potential for global warming and ecological problems have become key concerns for the world. These concerns have spurred interest in developing and using biomass fuels (Agblevor et al. 1995). Bio-oil is a sustainable source of renewable energy converted by biomass wastes using a process called "fast pyrolysis".; Large amounts of logging residue, forest wastes and low-grade pulpwood are generated every year in Texas. Utilizing these unused resources, by building a portable plant and producing bio-oil on the logging sites potentially can be a project profitable. In this study, a 15-year-length cash flow table was built with revenues and costs calculated to find out the net income and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Three different operational intensities and 288 scenarios under various combinations of revenue/cost factors were included. Payback periods also were calculated for 96 scenarios in the first operation intensity (8 hours a day, 260 days a year).; The results of the analyses indicated bio-oil production in East Texas, using a portable plant can have great profitability. IRRs of most of 288 scenarios showed dramatic positive financial returns. As profits kept increasing, IRR became incalculable in a lot of scenarios because net income was positive, even in the first year of the investment. A prototype portable plant is recommended to be built to get more precise numbers of net income and percentage of return. |
