Burk TechnoEconomics

In this whitepaper, Chris makes the case for more investment in early-stage techno-economic analysis at the national level. He proposes that a relatively small investment could substantially increase the impact of R&D funding, and thereby increase the rate and impact of hard-tech innovation.

Thanks to Schmidt Futures and Activate for their support.

Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP) is the flagship publication of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. This by Chris Burk, titled 'Techno-Economic Modeling for New Technology Development', which teaches how spreadsheet software can be used to build integrated process and economic models that provide new insights into profitability.

Chris worked with Activate in 2018 to create this series free of instructional videos on how to think about, plan, and model a tough-tech product's value and cost in the market.

www.activate.org/techonomics

Equipment factor capital cost estimates can be confusing. This short piece attempts to help clarify them. 

Tornado diagrams are one of our favorite tools for visually representing the results of a techno-economic model. They highlight the most influential input parameters in a way that is clear and easy for anyone to understand....

Searchable stream tables are essential to the models we build. Chris wrote this article for AIChE's ChEnected blog describing how to implement them.

Chris wrote this article after reading Geoffrey West's fascinating book 'Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies'.

The models that we build rely largely on exponential scaling relationships for estimating capital costs. These relationships are normally empirical, but they are closely tied to equipment and plant characteristics. Understanding this connection can help you to use them more effectively, especially when data is limited.

Normalized profitability metrics provide a basis for comparing the efficiency of capital investments, but they are often misunderstood. New interpretations of these metrics can help engineers to make more informed decisions.

This is a set of slides illustrating aspects of our approach to techno-economic modeling and analysis. 

“In terms of its consequences for decisions, the optimistic bias may well be the most significant cognitive bias. Because optimistic bias is both a blessing and a risk, you should be both happy and wary if you are temperamentally optimistic.”

– Daniel Kahneman

“It is an inescapable fact that estimates of resource requirements for future systems are beset with uncertainty. The question is not whether uncertainty exists, but rather in determining the magnitude and nature of the uncertainty.”

– Paul Dienemann, RAND Corporation

Searchable stream tables are essential to the models we build. Chris wrote this article for AIChE's ChEnected blog describing how to implement them.