Optimal location for a biomass based methanol production plant : case study in Northern Sweden

Methanol appears to be a new alternative fuel in the transport sector. Methanol can be produced through gasification of lignocellulosic biomass, which makes it a renewable fuel, and its utilization has therefore an impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The county of Norrbotten in northern Sweden has the characteristic to have great amount of woody biomass, and a sparsely inhabited area. Transportation distances of both biomass and methanol would then have a great impact on the final cost of methanol depending on where the methanol plant is located. This county was therefore studied as a case study with a twenty year perspective in order to validate an optimization model. The optimal locations of three different sizes of methanol plants were studied for four demographic scenarios. From this study it appears that methanol plants of 100 MWbiomass and 200 MWbiomass would be set up closer to the demand area than a 400 MWbiomass that would optimally be set up more inlands close to the available biomass.Godkänd; 2007; 20071121 (joakim)