Technoeconomic analysis of biojet fuel production from camelina at commercial scale: Case of Canadian Prairies

This study undertakes technoeconomic analysis of commercial production of hydro-processed renewable jet (HRJ) fuel from camelina oil in the Canadian Prairies. An engineering economic model designed in SuperPro Designer® investigated capital investment, scale, and profitability of producing HRJ and co-products (biodiesel, naphtha, LPG, and propane) based on biorefinery plant sizes of 112.5-675 million L annum−1. Under base case scenario, the minimum selling price (MSP) of HRJ was $1.06 L−1 for a biorefinery plant with size of 225 million L. However, it could range from $0.40 to $1.71 L−1 given variations in plant capacity, feedstock cost, and co-product credits. MSP is highly sensitive to camelina feedstock cost and co-product credits, with little sensitivity to capital cost, discount rate, plant capacity, and hydrogen cost. Marginal and average cost curves suggest the region could support an HRJ plant capacity of up to 675 million L annum−1 (capital investment of $167 million).