Optimal design of sustainable cellulosic biofuel supply chains: Multiobjective optimization coupled with life cycle assessment and input–output analysis

Abstract

in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).This article addresses the optimal design and planning of cellulosic ethanol supply chains under economic, environmental, and social objectives. The economic objective is measured by the total annualized cost, the environmental objective is measured by the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, and the social objective is measured by the number of accrued local jobs. A multiobjective mixed-integer linear programming (mo-MILP) model is developed that accounts for major characteristics of cellulosic ethanol supply chains, including supply seasonality and geographical diversity, biomass degradation, feedstock density, diverse conversion pathways and byproducts, infrastructure compatibility, demand distribution, regional economy, and government incentives. Aspen Plus models for biorefineries with different feedstocks and conversion pathways are built to provide detailed techno-economic and emission analysis results for the mo-MILP model, which simultaneously predicts the optimal network design, facility location, technology selection, capital investment, production planning, inventory control, and logistics management decisions. The mo-MILP problem is solved with an econstraint method; and the resulting Pareto-optimal curves reveal the tradeoff between the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of the sustainable biofuel supply chains. The proposed approach is illustrated through two case studies for the state of Illinois.We note that both distance variable costs and distance fixed costs are taken into account in the feedstock and fuel ethanol

La sostenibilidad en el diseño de cadenas de suministro de biocombustibles

“…Sin embargo, este enfoque sistémico no ha sido ampliamente adoptado en la literatura de planificación energética renovable, y las soluciones costo-beneficio para biocombustibles con un impacto mínimo en los alimentos y otros recursos naturales no han sido investigadas a fondo en la optimización aplicada al diseño de las cadenas de suministro [3], [43][44].…”

“…En contraste, en [43] desarrollaron un MILP multiobjetivo que permite planificar cadenas de suministro de etanol de segunda generación atendiendo a un objetivo por cada dimensión de la sostenibilidad. El objetivo económico fue la minimización del costo anualizado de operar la cadena, el ambiental buscó el menor nivel de emisiones GEI, y el social fue el aumento del número de puestos de trabajo locales.…”

Multi-criteria decision making approaches for green supply chains: a review

“…Soysal et al (2014) and Govindan et al (2014a) take perishability into account by allowing a maximum number of consecutive time periods that a food product can be stored. You et al (2012) take into account a given degradation rate during storage, i.e. it is assumed that during each time period a given fraction of stored products deteriorates and cannot be used.…”

BVCM: A comprehensive and flexible toolkit for whole system biomass value chain analysis and optimisation – Mathematical formulation

“…You et al [19] focused only on ethanol production from a generic biomass feedstock with fixed availability.…”

“…Most are restricted to a particular purpose: many are concerned with biofuels [18,19,20,22,23,24,27,29,30,31,32,33,36,37,41] …”