Economic assessments are becoming important in the analysis of biorefinery concepts (Wright and Brown, 2011). This is due in part to the lack of commercial experience in establishing novel technologies that can convert alternative feedstock into products not commonly derived from renewable sources. Another factor is the recent volatility in oil prices yielding to the possibility of long-term financial viability of biorefinery projects. Finally, strong governmental support ensures that attractive processes receive financial support during development. These factors have resulted in an increase in the publication rates of biorefinery techno-economic studies.

Recent biorefinery techno-economic papers have focused on advanced biorefineries based on the thermochemical and biochemical platforms. These papers assess the technical and economic viability of technologies ranging from the development phase up to demonstration stage. Some assessments benefit from the data available for established commercial technologies employed in other industries. However, many of the advanced biorefinery technologies are first-of-a-kind facilities, which present a major engineering challenge. In this section, we discuss how insights provided by techno-economic analysis have contributed to our understanding of advanced thermochemical and biochemical biorefinery concepts.