2026-09-22T01:13:54Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/113286 2023-07-11 col_2142_5131 col_2142_14770 com_2142_5130 com_2142_3518 com_2142_234

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113286 en Cai, Ximing Piao, Ximin 2022-01-12T22:55:00Z 2022-01-12T22:55:00Z 2024-01-12T22:56:20Z 2021-07-11 2021-08 Renewable biofuel production requires a considerable amount of water for biofuel conversion. However, it is still unclear how much water is needed in the Contiguous United States (CONUS) to convert feedstocks to biofuels and the associated impacts on local water availabilities. This study addresses this issue with the most up-to-date data of feedstock, water availability, and water requirements for biorefinery technologies. The multi-faceted nature of biofuel development, including feedstock production, water availability, transportation cost, biorefinery capacity, and biorefinery benefits and costs, is addressed through the delineation of a basic analysis unit: biorefinery planning boundary (RPB). The result suggests the total biorefinery water use in 2030 accounts for less than 0.01% of the total water availability in the CONUS. However, local water issues are found, especially in the Great Plains RPBs where biorefinery would consume up to 100% of the local water availabilities. This high level of water consumption shows possible pressures on local water use, water infrastructure, and water price. If a constraint on water consumption is imposed for biorefineries, up to 1.2 billion Gallon/year cellulosic biofuel production (7.5% of the renewable fuel standard mandated amount) will be affected. The total affected cellulosic biofuel production correlates strongly with the water use constraint when the biomass price is higher than $50/dry ton (dt), but such correlation diminishes as the biomass price becomes lower. Findings from this study will be beneficial for the sustainable planning of biofuel production. Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2023-08-01 The student, Ximin Piao, accepted the attached license on 2021-07-08 at 15:42. The student, Ximin Piao, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2021-07-08 at 15:44. This Thesis was approved for publication on 2021-07-11 at 08:58. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #16809 on 2022-01-12 at 13:04:13 Made available in DSpace on 2022-01-12T22:55:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 PIAO-THESIS-2021.pdf: 5314653 bytes, checksum: ca90598f01eec2cd553e26b1b3f44c18 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4207 bytes, checksum: 1ea8da51e2bc579971d1c9e6fade7adc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021-07-11 Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 121214 Lift date: 2024-01-12T22:55:09Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 121214 Lift date: 2024-01-12T22:56:20Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Limited application/pdf Copyright 2021 Ximin Piao biofuel renewable fuel standard water use cellulosic biofuel biorefinery Water requirement for biorefinery to meet the renewable fuel standard in the contiguous United States text Thesis Civil & Environmental Eng Civil Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Thesis M.S.