Controlling moisture content and truck configurations to model and optimise biomass supply chain logistics in Ireland

Abstract

Highlights A linear programming model that optimises wood biomass supply in Ireland. It uses MC to determine harvesting, chipping, storage and transportation costs. It analyses two supply chain scenarios and two truck configurations. Low wood MC increases supply cost due to longer transport distances. Optimal truck loads can be achieved by controlling wood MC. AbstractIn the coming years, Ireland will continue to face an increasing demand for wood biomass as a renewable source of energy. This will result in strained supply/demand scenarios, which will call for new planning and logistics systems capable of optimizing the efficient use of the biomass resources.In this study, a linear programming tool was developed which includes moisture content (MC) as a driving factor for the cost optimisation of two supply chains that use short wood and whole trees from thinnings as material feedstock. The tool was designed and implemented to analyse the impact of moisture content and truck configurations (5-axle and 6-axle trucks) on supply chain costs and spatial distribution of the supply materials. The results indicate that the inclusion of wood chips from whole trees reduces the costs of wood energy supply in comparison with only producing wood chips from short wood to satisfy the demand, with 9.8% and 10.2% cost reduction when transported with 5-axle and 6-axle trucks, respectively. Constraining the MC of the wood chips delivered to the power plant increases both transport and overall supply chain costs, due, firstly to an increase in the haulage distance and secondly, to the number of counties providing the biomass material. In terms of truck configuration, the use of 6-axle trucks resulted in a 14.8% reduction in the number of truckloads and a 12.3% reduction in haulage costs in comparison to the use of 5-axle trucks across the MC scenarios analysed.

Life cycle assessment of biomass-to-energy systems in Ireland modelled with biomass supply chain optimisation based on greenhouse gas emission reduction

“…A number of studies have used mathematical programming in developing optimisation models in order to gain insight into the logistics of biomass supply chains and to improve the efficiency of these supply chains by maximising or minimising one or more parameters considering scarce resources [52]. Typically, an optimisation problem is comprised of an objective function (linear or non-linear equation) expressed as a mathematical function of decision variables and other parameters that will be maximised or minimised according to the necessity of the problem, and a set of constraints (linear or non-linear inequalities or equations) [53].…”

“…Articulated trucks with 6 axles and a DGVW (design gross vehicle weight) of 46,000 kg to transport wood logs, residue bundles and miscanthus bales, and articulated box trailer trucks also with 6 axles and DGVW of 46,000 kg to transport shredded and chipped biomass. To calculate the number of truckloads necessary to supply the different types of biomass, average truck's volume and weight capacities were gathered in field studies carried out in Ireland by Sosa et al [52].…”

Adaptive Procurement Guidelines for Automatic Selection of Renewable Forest Energy Sources within a Sustainable Energy Production System

“…Several recent studies have considered these parameters as important characteristics of management and control in solution of the complex energy planning problem. [3,7,8,10,11].…”

A Multilayer Model Predictive Control Methodology Applied to a Biomass Supply Chain Operational Level

“…Thus, it is important to efficiently use the resources at the minimum cost possible [22] trying also to reduce the impacts and a continuous feedstock supply [7]. This is also the main challenge of supply chains [9,15], where complex decisionmaking processes are needed to achieve short-, medium-, and long-term goals [23].…”