Method and apparatus for processing agricultural materials and changing the proportions of output materials

摘要

Apparatus and method for optimizing different amounts of output products derived from an initial biomass material. The method includes obtaining economic data of costs and availability of raw materials and resources, and prices that would be paid for output products derived, performing calculations to determine an optimum amount of each of the output products; and controlling processes that generate the output products. In some embodiments, the processes convert initial biomass materials into intermediate and output products, an economic engine that obtains economic data relating to costs of initial materials and prices that would be paid for output products derived from the raw materials, and performs calculations to determine an optimum amount of each of the output products, and valves that are controlled by the economic engine to route variable amounts of the initial biomass materials to the processes to obtain a mix of output products that provides an optimum profit.

主权项

1. A method performed by a computer system comprising:
obtaining, by the computer system, economic data relating to costs of a plurality of different initial agricultural cellulosic biomass materials; obtaining, by the computer system, economic data relating to prices that would be paid for a plurality of output products that are not found in, but that are derived from: the initial agricultural cellulosic biomass materials; performing calculations by the computer system based on the obtained economic data relating to costs and the obtained economic data relating to prices in order to determine an optimum amount, for maximum profit, of each of the plurality of output products that are not found in the initial biomass materials; and controlling, by the computer system, a plurality of biomass-conversion machinery processes that generate the plurality of output products from the initial biomass materials based on the calculations, wherein the plurality of biomass-conversion machinery processes include a control mechanism that controls a flow of materials through the plurality of biomass-conversion machinery processes.