Synthesis of Networks for the Production and Supply of Renewable Energy from Biomass

This paper presents a step towards an integrated approach when synthesizing self-sufficient food-and-energy regional networks and utilising multi-functional crops, which can then be used for food and energy production, dedicated energy crops and low-value agricultural co-products, and waste. For the purpose of analysis, the given region is divided into several zones, which are smaller administratively/economically/geographically integrated areas within the region (Lam et al., 2010). The synthesis of energy production and consumption networks is performed using the superstructural approach, supported by mathematical programming methods. The synthesized networks are comprised of agricultural, pre-processing, processing, and distribution sectors. Economical and environmental evaluation is performed and discussed from optimisation, by employing a mixed-integer nonlinear programming MINLP process synthesizer MIPSYN (Kravanja, 2010).