Supply chain of biorefineries based on Coffee Cut-Stems: Colombian case

The viability of bio-based processes is linked to key factors, such as technical, economic, environmental, social, experimental and logistic performance. The suitable synergy between these factors allows achieving a sustainable process. In this sense, two biorefineries based on Coffee Cut-Stems (CCS), which have already been assessed from the five perspectives, are analyzed in the context of a supply chain (SC) that considers the feedstock availability and main products demand. The SC is located in Colombia according to different targets, such as production of second-generation ethanol and biomass for electricity generation. The results obtained are organized in five cases of study. As a result, the subregions, such as "Antioquia_Suroeste", "Huila_Sur", "Santander", "Tolima_Sur" and "Quindio" are more suitable to install a biorefinery. The larger the amount of available feedstock in a subregion, the lower the transportation costs. However, regions with limited availability must be close to others with resources for a biorefinery to be installed. In remote zones and those with zero feedstock availability, the possibility that a biorefinery exists is low. It is possible to substitute 40% of the ethanol demand using CSS remaining with an investment of 77.88 M-USD. However, only 0.43% of the electricity demand can be achieved using residues.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).