Supply Chain Optimization of Biomass Production Improvement

Renewable energy, especially biofuels, is seen as a viable solution to replace the depleting fossil fuels. Moreover, tighter environmental regulations across the world force many countries to develop strategic approaches to target and screen relevant replacement of resources and technologies. Because there are significant variations in types of biomass and conversion methods, determining the economical effectiveness of overall supply chain (SC) is a complex task. Thus, a holistic approach which accounts for economic, environmental and production aspects across the SC, starting from cultivation to the final products, and establishing appropriate links among them at each stage is imperative in analyzing overall chain efficiency. In this work, for analysis of SC, mathematical modelling is paired with linear programming (LP), which accounts for the variability of technologies that uses biomass as input. The analysis includes economic and environmental factors along the SC. Green House Gases (GHG) is analysed in terms of carbon-equivalent units and converted into monetary values to form financial objective. In addition, incentives for each party in the SC to have economical gain have also been considered. To validate the developed methodology, a case study from Northern Italy is investigated that takes corn stover as a feedstock and targeting production of ethanol with ash, carbon dioxide and DDGS being by-products. It should be highlighted that different types of ethanol conversion technologies are analyzed in terms of overall SC and compliance of GHG emission with existing regulation is also taken into account in the case study.