Woody Biomass Sustainability for Bioenergy Production in West Virginia

West Virginia is the third most heavily forested state in the U.S. and produces 2.41 million dry tons of wood residues annually. These wood wastes are sustainable and can be used as feedstock for biofuels, bio-gas and green electricity. Biomass sustainability, efficient harvesting, extraction, and transportation of woody biomass are the key to the economic success of wood residue utilization. The cost components of collecting, processing, and delivering woody biomass are not well documented, which hinders further research on the economic feasibility of woody biomass-based biorefineries in West Virginia. A mix integer programming (MIP) model was developed using General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) to optimize potential woody biomass-based biorefinery locations with the objective of minimizing the total annual delivered cost of available woody biomass. The model was applied in West Virginia and analyzed in terms of sensitivity analysis under different resource and operational scenarios, such as proportion of woody biomass availability, demand levels at plant, and others. The results would be useful to facilitate the research and economic development of woody biomass for biofuels in the region.