{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122105"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122105","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Design and evaluation of biomass utilization systems","abstract":"This thesis designs and evaluates systems to utilize two problematic biomass sources, hurricane debris and invasive water hyacinth, and turn costly cleanup efforts into opportunities for biofuel conversion systems. A novel solution is proposed for each biomass source and techno-economic models accounting for economic, energy, and carbon costs are used to evaluate different options for utilization. Hurricane debris is a feedstock that gets generated in vast quantities in an unpredictable manner, thus its main challenge is its supply chain. We propose a 30MW barge-mounted biofuel conversion system, which travels to hurricane-hit ports and converts debris into biofuels. For a 30MW plant, the break-even per-gallon revenue for profitability was found to be $5.28 per gallon of jet fuel for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, $0.88 per gallon of heating oil for pyrolysis, and $1.07 per gallon of ethanol for fermentation.","abstract_html":"This thesis designs and evaluates systems to utilize two problematic biomass sources, hurricane debris and invasive water hyacinth, and turn costly cleanup efforts into opportunities for biofuel conversion systems. A novel solution is proposed for each biomass source and techno-economic models accounting for economic, energy, and carbon costs are used to evaluate different options for utilization. Hurricane debris is a feedstock that gets generated in vast quantities in an unpredictable manner, thus its main challenge is its supply chain. We propose a 30MW barge-mounted biofuel conversion system, which travels to hurricane-hit ports and converts debris into biofuels. For a 30MW plant, the break-even per-gallon revenue for profitability was found to be $5.28 per gallon of jet fuel for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, $0.88 per gallon of heating oil for pyrolysis, and $1.07 per gallon of ethanol for fermentation.","abstract_has_math":true,"creators":["Peng, Valerie."],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":"Master","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Alexander Slocum."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019","date_published":"2019","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:21:07Z","subjects":["Mechanical Engineering."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."],"rights_urls":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122105","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Alexander Slocum."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering","MechE"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.other","label":"Dc Contributor Other","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Peng, Valerie."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2019-09-16T20:57:55Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-09-16T20:57:55Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2019"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Mechanical Engineering."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122105"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2019","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-187)."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This thesis designs and evaluates systems to utilize two problematic biomass sources, hurricane debris and invasive water hyacinth, and turn costly cleanup efforts into opportunities for biofuel conversion systems. A novel solution is proposed for each biomass source and techno-economic models accounting for economic, energy, and carbon costs are used to evaluate different options for utilization. Hurricane debris is a feedstock that gets generated in vast quantities in an unpredictable manner, thus its main challenge is its supply chain. We propose a 30MW barge-mounted biofuel conversion system, which travels to hurricane-hit ports and converts debris into biofuels. For a 30MW plant, the break-even per-gallon revenue for profitability was found to be $5.28 per gallon of jet fuel for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, $0.88 per gallon of heating oil for pyrolysis, and $1.07 per gallon of ethanol for fermentation.","Using May 2019 US national fuel prices, the pyrolysis and fermentation plants were found to operate at a profit of $363.87 and $166.40 per dry ton of consumed hurricane debris respectively. A supply chain model was also created to calculate debris transport costs and evaluate the economic benefits of chipping debris directly in the field, which was found to be 24% more efficient than status quo stationary chipping operations. Water hyacinth is generated predictably and in huge quantities; however, the weight of water hyacinth is up to 95% water and it is thus inefficient to work with. Thus, we propose a novel roller-crusher harvester which grabs, crushes, and directly bags aquatic plants into digesters in-situ on the water. We find that an anaerobic digestion system with the proposed mechanical harvesting system could make a profit of $5.81 per ton of hyacinth, turning a costly problem into an economic opportunity.","Hardware designs, prototypes, and on-water tests then show the viability of the roller-conditioner as a boat-mounted in-situ harvester-crusher. Ultimately, this work shows that careful design and evaluation of utilization systems could turn government aid and charity spent every year on debris and waterway cleanup into a profitable investment."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["S.M."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Design and evaluation of biomass utilization systems"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Alexander Slocum."],"dc:contributor.department":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering","MechE"],"dc:contributor.other":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering."],"dc:creator":["Peng, Valerie."],"dc:date.accessioned":["2019-09-16T20:57:55Z"],"dc:date.available":["2019-09-16T20:57:55Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2019"],"dc:description":["Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2019","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-187)."],"dc:description.abstract":["This thesis designs and evaluates systems to utilize two problematic biomass sources, hurricane debris and invasive water hyacinth, and turn costly cleanup efforts into opportunities for biofuel conversion systems. A novel solution is proposed for each biomass source and techno-economic models accounting for economic, energy, and carbon costs are used to evaluate different options for utilization. Hurricane debris is a feedstock that gets generated in vast quantities in an unpredictable manner, thus its main challenge is its supply chain. We propose a 30MW barge-mounted biofuel conversion system, which travels to hurricane-hit ports and converts debris into biofuels. For a 30MW plant, the break-even per-gallon revenue for profitability was found to be $5.28 per gallon of jet fuel for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, $0.88 per gallon of heating oil for pyrolysis, and $1.07 per gallon of ethanol for fermentation.","Using May 2019 US national fuel prices, the pyrolysis and fermentation plants were found to operate at a profit of $363.87 and $166.40 per dry ton of consumed hurricane debris respectively. A supply chain model was also created to calculate debris transport costs and evaluate the economic benefits of chipping debris directly in the field, which was found to be 24% more efficient than status quo stationary chipping operations. Water hyacinth is generated predictably and in huge quantities; however, the weight of water hyacinth is up to 95% water and it is thus inefficient to work with. Thus, we propose a novel roller-crusher harvester which grabs, crushes, and directly bags aquatic plants into digesters in-situ on the water. We find that an anaerobic digestion system with the proposed mechanical harvesting system could make a profit of $5.81 per ton of hyacinth, turning a costly problem into an economic opportunity.","Hardware designs, prototypes, and on-water tests then show the viability of the roller-conditioner as a boat-mounted in-situ harvester-crusher. Ultimately, this work shows that careful design and evaluation of utilization systems could turn government aid and charity spent every year on debris and waterway cleanup into a profitable investment."],"dc:description.degree":["S.M."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122105"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:rights":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."],"dc:rights.uri":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"dc:subject":["Mechanical Engineering."],"dc:title":["Design and evaluation of biomass utilization systems"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:21:07Z"}