BEACCON

The BEACCON (Biofuels Emissions and Cost Connection) model allows ethanol producers to evaluate the potential impacts on production costs of the global warming intensity (GWI) of different biofuel production pathways. Version 1.2 of the model focuses on ethanol plants with a capacity of 100 million gallons per year. BEACCON is implemented in Excel®, and may be downloaded free of charge.

BEACCON separately calculates

• Production costs of ethanol taking into account plant capital costs, corn costs, energy feedstock costs, labor, chemicals, and other cost components
• Energy system costs taking into account energy system capital costs, thermal fuel and electricity feedstocks
• GWI of ethanol on a lifecycle basis by major contributing components: agricultural phase, thermal energy feedstocks, and electricity feedstocks

BEACCON includes

• Energy balance and cost requirements of 12 different ethanol plant energy systems
• Prevailing energy prices in 9 different states (home to over 80% of the current installed ethanol plant capacity)
• Life cycle global warming intensity of 5 different NERC electricity grid regions
• Coal, natural gas, and biomass fired ethanol plants
• Advanced plant configurations including combined heat and power systems, gasification, co-firing, and nuclear co-location systems

The Model is available free of charge. Please register your name, email address, and institution to obtain access to the spreadsheet.

Uses of BEACCON

The BEACCON model has been used to inform ethanol plant operators and regulators of the GWI of distinct ethanol production pathways. See the recent presentation list for more details.