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BELT

Biorefinery Economic and Lifecycle Assessment Tool

BELT is an open-source, modular framework for techno-economic analysis (TEA) of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production. It is built on top of BioSTEAM, a fast and flexible process simulation platform for early-stage biorefineries.

The package provides two independent modules that can be used separately or in combination:

Module Pathway Key output
ATJ Alcohol-to-Jet from ethanol Minimum jet fuel selling price (MJSP, USD/gal)
LigSAF Lignin valorization via Reductive Catalytic Fractionation (RCF) Minimum selling price (MSP, USD/kg)

Why BELT?

Techno-economic models for SAF are often closed-source, making it difficult to reproduce results or adapt assumptions to new feedstocks and process configurations. BELT is designed to be:

  • Modular — process areas are independent factory functions that can be swapped or extended
  • Transparent — all parameters, prices, and reaction specifications are in readable Python files
  • Reproducible — simulations run from a single entry-point script or notebook

Repository structure

ATJSPK/
├── atj_saf/          # ATJ module
│   └── atj_qsd/      # Process systems, units, and chemicals
├── lignin_saf/        # LigSAF module
│   └── systems/       # RCF, HDO, oil purification, utilities
├── scripts/           # Entry-point scripts for integrated simulations
└── consolidated_bp_kay/  # Supporting BioSTEAM configurations

Citation

If you use BELT in your work, please cite the repository:

Wadgama, H. (2025). BELT: Biorefinery Economic and Lifecycle Assessment Tool. GitHub. https://github.com/H-Wadgama/belt

Contact

Questions or feedback? Reach out on LinkedIn or open an issue on GitHub.