Optimization of biofuel supply chain design via a water-energy-food nexus framework

Biofuels are attractive energy renewable sources to satisfy the current growing energy demand, but large-scale production requires the installation of complex biorefinery systems that involve strategic decisions for design and operation such as to determine the location, feedstocks, production capacities, as well as the impact on the surrounding environment. This work proposes an optimization model for the design of a biorefinery system through an efficient supply chain considering economic (minimization of the total annual cost) and environmental objectives (minimization of the overall CO2 emission and the water consumption along the nexus). This approach considers the inherent uncertainty on prices of feedstocks and products, biofuel demands, biomass requirements, weather conditions, agricultural production, etc. Finally, a case study located in Mexico is solved for several scenarios to illustrate the capacity of this approach. The solution shows the trade-off among the considered objectives affected by uncertainty in the biorefinery system.