ORIGINAL PAPER A multidisciplinary decision support tool for evaluating multiple biorefinery conversion technologies and supply chain performance Sumesh Sukumara • William Faulkner • Joseph Amundson • Fazleena Badurdeen • Jeffrey Seay Received: 29 August 2013 / Accepted: 2 December 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract Fuels from biomass resources have emerged as a promising alternative to fossil fuel. Widely distributed source locations, varying feedstock, and specific regional conditions make it challenging to develop an optimization model that can be applied to any region to estimate the overall economics of producing these biofuels. The lack of a region specific, flexible optimization model makes it difficult for stakeholders like local policy makers, growers, and investors to make informed decisions about the eco- nomic viability and social and environmental impacts of biomass utilization. This novel contribution will illustrate an approach to develop a region specific optimization model which links various aspects of the biofuel supply chain such as feedstock source location, upstream and downstream logistics, as well as thermochemical and bio- chemical processing. This research shows how various individual optimization models can be combined, resulting in a complete, multivariable economic optimization model for a regional biomass network, paving a pathway for future work to develop an integrated framework for sus- tainability. The research demonstrated in this contribution illustrates the development of a model that can form the basis of a generalizable decision support tool that can guide investors and policy makers in making critical assessments on a local level in any particular region of interest. As a proof of concept, a portion of the described model will be validated using the Jackson Purchase region of Western Kentucky, USA, which is adjoining many coal fields and has various bio-based feedstocks. Keywords Biofuel  Biomass  Supply chain  Process simulation  Integrated biorefinery  Decision support tool Introduction Rapid increase in consumption of energy and fuel has given rise to questions regarding the feasibility of future reliance on fossil fuel. Until now, only a few countries have made significant progress toward reducing energy depen- dence on fossil fuel (Batidzirai et al. 2012). Because of this, much of the recent research focuses on developing a sustainable source of energy and transportation fuel. Among the various options available, biomass intrigues many researchers because of its widespread availability, cost effectiveness, and its applicability as a sustainable energy source. In recent times, the research focus for bio- fuels has shifted from the first generation biofuels, derived from plant sugars and oils, to the second generation which are produced using lignocellulosic biomass (Batidzirai et al. 2012). Numerous processes are available to convert lignocellulosic biomass to various marketable products; Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10098-013-0703-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. S. Sukumara  J. Seay (&) Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA e-mail: jseay@engr.uky.edu W. Faulkner Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA W. Faulkner  J. Amundson  F. Badurdeen Institute of Sustainable Manufacturing, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA J. Amundson  F. Badurdeen Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA 123 Clean Techn Environ Policy DOI 10.1007/s10098-013-0703-6