Integrated strategic and tactical biomass-biofuel supply chain optimization

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Engineering
• Biomass Supply Chain Optimization
• Biofuel Production

Background:

• Effective biomass feedstock provision is crucial for large-scale biofuel production.
• Optimizing the entire biomass supply chain is complex, involving strategic and tactical decisions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrated biomass supply chain optimization model.
• To minimize annual biomass-ethanol production costs by simultaneously optimizing strategic and tactical planning.

Main Methods:

• A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model was developed.
• The model optimizes activities from harvesting and transportation to preprocessing, storage, and ethanol production/distribution.
• The model was applied to a Miscanthus-ethanol supply chain in Illinois.

Main Results:

• The base case Miscanthus-ethanol production cost was $0.72/L.
• Biorefinery-related costs constituted 62% of total costs, followed by biomass procurement.
• A 50% reduction in biomass yield increased production costs by 11%.

Conclusions:

• The integrated model effectively optimizes biomass supply chains for cost reduction.
• Biorefinery operations and biomass procurement are key cost drivers.
• Biomass yield significantly impacts ethanol production economics.