Designing a sustainable biofuel supply chain by considering carbon policies: a case study in Iran

Abstract

Background Carbon emissions and global warming have increased as a result of population growth and greater usage of fossil fuels. Finding a long-term replacement for fossil fuels, such as biofuels, has become a major problem for energy supply management in recent years. Sustainability must be addressed as a key problem in building biofuel supply chains (BSCs), given the pressing need for societies to limit environmental consequences and promote social responsibility of company activities. Various modeling frameworks have been established so far to design a BSC. At the same time, no research exists that examines both the sustainable development paradigm and the influence of various carbon regulatory policies on the strategic and operational decisions made by BSCs. Methods This study develops a multi-objective, multi-period, multi-echelon BSC from switch grass regarding the economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability. Four carbon policies are taken into account when assessing the environmental aspect: the carbon cap, the carbon tax, the carbon trade, and the carbon offset. To solve the multi-objective model, the fuzzy interactive programming method is used, and the fuzzy best–worst method is used to weight the social objective components. Results An actual case study in Iran is studied to demonstrate the model’s applicability. Under various carbon policies, different network configurations are obtained based on the location of switch grass resources and installed facilities. Biofuel production and transportation activities account for approximately 28% and 51% of total carbon emissions, respectively, according to numerical results. Furthermore, these activities account for roughly 62% of overall expenses. In the suggested case study, implementing the carbon trade policy reduces carbon emissions by more than 30% while increasing total profit by about 27%. In comparison to other policies, the carbon trade policy has a substantial impact on enhancing social considerations. Overall, the carbon trade policy can greatly improve the economic and environmental components of sustainability without significantly decreasing in the social sustainability. Conclusions The proposed model can assist policymakers and governments in simultaneously optimizing BSC profitability, carbon emission reduction, and social concern.

Renewable energy from secondary wood products contributes to local green development: the case of small-scale privately owned forests in Ciamis Regency, Indonesia

“…Therefore, the use of forest biomass residues for firewood needs to pay attention to the balance of supply and demand. Some of the efforts that can be made include regulating forest waste harvesting that follows guidelines agreed upon by stakeholders [ 61 ], efficiently using firewood [ 62 ], and considering the implementation of carbon trading policies [ 63 ]. These efforts also need to be adjusted to the local context for effective results.…”

A Systematic Review of Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design: Optimization Approaches and Research Trends

“…ϵ-constraint ϵ-constraint [6,14,55,104,114,134,136,138,146]; Augmented ϵ-constraint [5,8,27,71,109,[122][123][124]131,132,139,140] Goal programming [108,112,114,126,133,136] Exact method [20,22,56,57,99,103,106,[117][118][119]137] Fuzzy solution approach Fuzzy approach [28,34,47,61,129]; interactive fuzzy approach [45]; ϵ-constraint and fuzzy set theory [102]; fuzzy goal programming [135] Others AHP and TOPSIS [12]; Lagrangian relaxation approach [23]; four-stage hybrid method…”

“…Next, France, Australia, and Canada follow with eight articles each, and then Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Portugal with six, five, and four publications, respectively. In particular, the significant growth in terms of produced research in Iran was discussed by many researchers [14,21,[45][46][47], who linked it to the substantial investments in science, research, and development throughout the past two decades. These government efforts dedicate a good portion of the country's GDP to science and technology, aiming to train researchers and modernize research equipment [46,[48][49][50].…”

“…The Journal of Cleaner Production (JCP) occupies the first position; it includes 17 articles that represent about 17% of the total references. This is followed by the Computers and Industrial Engineering growth in terms of produced research in Iran was discussed by many researchers [14,21,[45][46][47], who linked it to the substantial investments in science, research, and development throughout the past two decades. These government efforts dedicate a good portion of the country's GDP to science and technology, aiming to train researchers and modernize research equipment [46,[48][49][50].…”

A Robust Possibilistic Bi-Objective Mixed Integer Model for Green Biofuel Supply Chain Design under Uncertain Conditions

“…Furthermore, Sarkar et al [25] detailed a flexible and new bioenergy and biofuel production system by transportation disruption considerations under a sustainable supply chain. Zarrinpoor et al [26] developed a multi-objective switchgrass supply chain network design by considering sustainability concepts and four carbon policies. In this study, the proposed model was refined by the fuzzy interactive programming method and the fuzzy best-worst technique.…”