Applications of Artificial Intelligence‐Based Modeling for Bioenergy Systems: A Review

Mochen Liao, Yuan Yao
2021 GCB Bioenergy  
Bioenergy is widely considered a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. However, large-scale applications of biomass-based energy products are limited due to challenges related to feedstock variability, conversion economics, and supply chain reliability. Artificial intelligence (AI), an emerging concept, has been applied to bioenergy systems in recent decades to address those challenges. This paper reviewed 164 articles published between 2005 and 2019 that applied different AI techniques to
more » ... oenergy systems. This review focuses on identifying the unique capabilities of various AI techniques in addressing bioenergy-related research challenges and improving the performance of bioenergy systems. Specifically, we characterized AI studies by their input variables, output variables, AI techniques, dataset size, and performance. We examined AI applications throughout the life cycle of bioenergy systems. We identified four areas in which AI has been mostly applied, including (1) the prediction of biomass properties, (2) the prediction of process performance of biomass conversion, including different conversion pathways and technologies, (3) the prediction of biofuel properties and the performance of bioenergy end-use systems, and (4) supply chain modeling and optimization. Based on the review, AI is particularly useful in generating data that are hard to be measured directly, improving traditional models of biomass conversion and biofuel end-uses, and overcoming the challenges of traditional computing techniques for bioenergy supply chain design and optimization. For future research, efforts are needed to develop standardized and practical procedures for selecting AI techniques and determining training data samples, to enhance data collection, documentation, and sharing across bioenergy-related areas, and to explore the potential of AI in supporting the sustainable development of bioenergy systems from holistic perspectives. K E Y W O R D S artificial intelligence, biochemical conversion, bioenergy, biofuel, biomass, supply chain, thermochemical conversion | BIOENERGY SYSTEM The bioenergy system is complex and usually involves biomass cultivation, biomass production and harvest, pretreatment, bioenergy production, distribution, and final usage (De Meyer et al., 2014) , as shown in Figure 1 . A wide variety of biomass can be converted to bioenergy products, including woody biomass, agricultural residues, aquatic biomass, animal biomass, industrial biomass, and mixtures, as shown in Figure 1 . Different/even the same type of biomass has variations in composition and physicochemical properties, such as ash content, moisture content, chemical compositions, heating value, density, and particle size that affect the design and operation of biomass conversion (Lan, F I G U R E 1 Major components and conversion pathways of bioenergy systems 776 |
doi:10.1111/gcbb.12816 fatcat:ixyyk6je6rcv3jdde3p36m6hre