ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the indices required to assess a biorefinery considering its complexity, conversion capacity, water and reagent consumption, and economic results. It provides the technical assessment of a biorefinery, indices such as biorefinery mass index, biorefinery water mass index, biorefinery reagents mass index, biorefinery coproducts and by-products mass index, biorefinery energy index, and biorefinery energy index by equipment. The chapter suggests that the economic assessment of a biorefinery, the index called biorefinery economic index. The index determination is an effort to calculate the relative cost of a refinery as a function of additional cost of evolutionary units and relative processing capacity. The value of W. L. Nelson's complexity index is proportional to the relative cost of the refinery. Analogous to this, in this chapter an index called "biorefinery complexity index (BCI)" is assessed. BCI is calculated based on platforms, feedstocks, products, and processes considered in a biorefinery.
